Letters to the editor 03/01/09

Gas pricing 101:

In response to Mr. Clements' letter concerning the price of gas ... partially reprinted from an AP article.

Crude oil prices have fallen to new lows for this year. So you'd think gas prices would sink right along with them. Not so.

Crude oil closed just under $34 a barrel, its lowest point for 2009. But the national average price of a gallon of gas rose to $1.95 on the same day, its peak for the year.

The price of gas is indeed tied to oil. It's just a matter of which oil. The benchmark for crude oil prices is West Texas Intermediate, drilled exactly where you would imagine. That's the price, set at the New York Mercantile Exchange, that you see quoted on business channels and in the morning paper. Right now, in an unusual market trend, West Texas crude is selling for much less than inferior grades of crude from other places around the world. A severe economic downturn has left U.S. storage facilities brimming with it, sending prices for the premium crude to five-year lows. But it is the overseas crude that goes into most of the gas made in the United States.

The recession in America has dramatically cut demand for crude oil, and inventories are piling up. So prices for West Texas crude have fallen well below what oil costs from places like the North Sea, Saudi Arabia and South America.

That foreign oil sells in some cases for $10 more per barrel (and that doesn't even include shipping). Brent North Sea crude, which feeds some East Coast refineries and therefore winds up at many gas pumps around America) and now costs about $7 more per barrel than the West Texas crude.

Now that the premium oil is suddenly very inexpensive, refiners elsewhere can't get their hands on it. At the same time, refiners have seen the same headlines as everyone else about job losses and consumer spending. They've slashed production just to avoid taking losses on gasoline no one will buy. Result: Higher gas prices.

KELLY MADIGAN

Carson City

Spending on horses on an insane level:

You quote state Sen. Dean Rhoads in the Feb. 14 issue as saying, "... we just can't continue spending millions and millions of dollars on horses that nobody wants." I certainly agree with that.

You go on to report that the BLM is spending about $27 million of our taxes caring for the animals. This expenditure raises the concept of insanity to a new level. The sooner we stop subsidizing these "Old West Traditions" and put the money into health and education programs for human beings, the better.

OSCAR W. FORD

Carson City

Darwin, Lincoln share birthday, not views:

Though Darwin and Lincoln share the same birthday, the views of these two men couldn't be more different. Today, Darwinists are fond of trying to show how similar we are to animals, while "Lincolnists" realize the enormous gulf between people and animals; we have self-worth and dignity which separates us from the beasts.

It's pretty ridiculous how Darwin gradually evolved into such an iconic figure, as beloved as Abraham Lincoln, to the point of celebrating the evolutionist's birthday. Evolutionists can't see much difference between an animal and a person. Lincoln saw plenty of differences, which is why enslaving people is wrong, but there's no such thing as an animal slave.

To quote the Elephant Man, "I am not an animal. I am a human being."

APRIL PEDERSEN

Reno

Smoking in public should be banned:

Smoking in public places should be banned in Nevada, due to the health hazards associated with secondhand smoke. Smokers should have the right to kill themselves, but not to harm anyone else in their efforts.

Smoking causes over 443,000 deaths in the United States each year (18 percent of total deaths); every year secondhand smoke kills about 50,000 of them, 3,400 from lung cancer and 22,700 to 69,600 from heart disease. Secondhand smoke has been proven to be more dangerous than smoking a cigarette yourself.

According to the most recent Surgeon General's Report there is no risk-free level of safe exposure to secondhand smoke. There is a vast amount of health problems associated with cigarette smoke such as: Cancer, respiratory infections, asthma, damage to the lining of blood vessels, increased risk of heart attack and heart disease.

Secondhand smoke is especially hazardous to children, because their lungs are still developing and it decreases their lung function. It is responsible for between 150,000 to 300,000 of lower respiratory track infections in infants and children under 18 months old, resulting in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations per year. It also causes 430 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths each year. Symptoms of asthma are often aggravated by secondhand smoke in children. Secondhand smoke is also responsible for 790,000 physician office visits per year.

Twenty-three states have already banned smoking in almost all public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars. Nevada is on the right track banning smoking in any food-serving establishment, but more strict regulations on smoking in public areas are needed to protect the health of us and especially our children.

BRANDON LEWALLEN

Gardnerville

Lincoln would weep at his annual dinner:

Regarding the recent Lincoln Day Dinner: Of course state Republicans are going to fall into lock-step with the obstructionists in Congress - the ones who were so proud of laying a "goose egg" on President Obama's desk when asked for support for a jobs and infrastructure bill from which they had already ripped many of the dollars needed for actual stimulus.

Now they can all gleefully insist the stimulus bill won't work.

Remember the names of those quoted at the dinner. Remember them at the next election. Remember Gov. Jim Gibbons - sir, if you want the state to dictate the use of its own money, then have the state raise some of its own money. It's called taxes, and it buys education, law enforcement, public safety - all the trappings of civilization.

Remember Assemblyman James Settlemeyer's obligatory trashing of Sen. Harry Reid, who has tried to work with Republicans at every turn, garnering the anger of liberals and the contempt of conservatives. Talk about a thankless job.

Especially remember the idiocy of Tom Grady's statement: "We can't spend our way to prosperity." Of course we can. It's the only way. If we the people have money to spend, commerce blossoms and the economy prospers. It's happened over and over - a Republican president decimates the economy for an ideology that promotes corporate greed and personal selfishness - until a Democratic administration is elected and launches a rescue operation, based on high standards of fiscal responsibility and promotion of social programs. The cycle's been going on for a century. Get a clue.   

Congressman Dean Heller didn't even attend the dinner, because it was more important to stamp his foot at the president. Empty symbolism strikes again.

Republicans are trying to formulate some support for future elections based on emotion-based bluster. Claims that the stimulus will create 3.5 million jobs may be "unprovable," Mr. Heck, but the truth is that under the last Republican administration that many and more jobs were lost, including 1.8 million in 2008 alone.

It seems like they never learn.

Lincoln Day Dinner? Lincoln would weep.

LEIGH MCGUIRE

Stagecoach

Many unhappy with stimulus bill:

Many of us Nevadans are unhappy with the new economic stimulus bill. We do not want to increase our national debt by such a staggering amount.

We do need more tax cuts on corporate profits to provide jobs. Just because there are not a great degree of profits in this economy doesn't mean that we shouldn't give them additional tax breaks. Some of it may trickle down.

All of this deficit federal spending is harmful so I propose that we all contact our local member of our state legislature and demand that they refuse to accept any of this stimulus money. We will be putting our principles where our mouth is and, of course, will reduce the national deficit accordingly. I will now remove my tongue from cheek.

ELMER WOLF

Dayton

Evolutionary debate as easy as A, B or C:

Your Feb. 13 reprint of the Los Angeles Times editorial on Darwin's birthday was a classic example of pro-evolution rhetoric. It referred to Darwin's theory as "the truth," and described those who don't subscribe to it as "rooted in American-style biblical fundamentalism."

If the editorial's position is correct, why not examine other viewpoints (creation/intelligent design) held by credentialed (Harvard University, etc.) scientists? With the Internet, this can easily be confirmed - simply Google "Ph.D.s, scientists who believe in creationism or intelligent design. " While you're at it, also Google "famous scientists in history who were creationists."

As Jewish attorney and actor Ben Stein points out in his documentary "Expelled," numerous scientists have been forced out of their positions in academia for merely believing there might be evidence of design in nature. In the film, Stein interviewed Oxford University professor and evolutionary biologist Dr. Richard Dawkins and asked how the universe began.

While candidly admitting he didn't know, Dawkins speculated perhaps a civilization evolved elsewhere in the universe and designed a form of life they "seeded" on earth.

So, which scientific explanation for the design seen in nature seems most plausible to you?

A: It was caused by a series of accidental, random occurrences; B: It was caused by extraterrestrials; or C: It was explained about 6,000 years ago when the first sentence in the Bible was written, "God created the heavens and the earth."

WILLIAM FELTNER

Carson City

Where exactly was the president born?

The theme of Obama's administration is one of truth, honesty and transparency.

He remains the only U.S. president to not release records of his education, passport, medical care (but for a single sheet of paper) and the long form of his birth certificate.

Obama released to two Web sites a scanned version of the Certificate of Live Birth. It shows neither the hospital where he was born nor the attending physician. The difference between the two forms can be seen at sites.google.com/site/obamabirth.

The controversy rages because he has not released this information and has used three law firms to block the release.

Several other facts fuel the controversy. Hawaii in the past has permitted foreign births to be recorded on its certificates. An example of such is the Hawaiian birth certificate of Sun Yat-Sen, the first president of the Republic of China, who was actually born in Guangdong, China, yet obtained a Hawaiian birth certificate.

There is said to be no record in any Honolulu hospital of a patient with the name of his mother, Stanley Ann Obama (nee Dunham). Yet people in Kenya claim to have either witnessed the birth personally or to have seen the newborn.

Aside from where he was born, there is the continuing question of whether a child born to a U.S. citizen and a foreign citizen (Obama's father was a British citizen of Kenya) fills the constitutional requirement of a natural-born citizen. "Black's Law Dictionary" defines a natural-born citizen, and it is not someone born under two nations' jurisdictions.

Should the annoying and bothersome detail of violating the Constitution matter?

This is a country of law, to which not only the common people are subject. We have lived through presidents who have considered themselves above the law. Should the voices of those who ask that the Constitution and the laws of our land be silenced and derided?

For some, only full disclosure will suffice. Others consider the issue irrelevant. Not everyone wants to go quietly where he is taking us.

PHILLIP BEEBE

Carson City

Harry, where's the pork for Nevada?

What good is Harry Reid? President Obama has just signed the $787 billion stimulus package. Divided by 50 states, $787 billion is approximately $15.7 billion per state.

Nevada's share is $1.47 billion. Less than 10 percent of our state's "fair share." Harry is the top dog in the senate and he can only get us less than 10 percent of an equal share? I ask again "What good is Harry Reid?" Or, in other words, "Harry, where's the pork?"

RUSS WAILES

Gardnerville