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Aug. 06, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

LETTERS: No child safety seats, no problem

To the editor:

Your Sunday editorial about child safety seats in cars brought back wonderful memories for us "kids." Thank you. Those of us in our 50s somehow survived childhood without using safety seats.

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I remember back in the late '50s, if you were a kid, you could lie in the back window of most cars. My sister and I would take turns. I would lie in the window and yell, "OK, Dad, ready!" He would hit the brakes and I would go flying into the back seat. Then it was my sister's turn. My cousins and nephews and their parents all did this "fun ride" for the kids. And we're all alive and well today to talk about it.

Now, OK, for the sake of argument, there were fewer people in the world and fewer people on the roads. It was upper New York state. We had never heard of road rage. People were less crazy and much more considerate of their neighbors, to be sure.

So is life any better now? Any safer now? Technologically, the world is far better off. But as far as people rushing from one event in their lives to another ... maybe we're not so better off.

George Carlin told a great joke. He'd say we've now got medicine bottles with child-proof lids, but we're breeding dumb kids because the smart kids can get them off and kill themselves. Survival of the dumbest.

We don't need more safety devices for kids. We need attentive parents who care and can teach their kids something about life and how to live and how to become good people. The problem is not cars or medicine bottles -- it's people.

If I could lie in the back window of my car today, I would do it. Unfortunately, back windows are not what they used to be.

Allen Williams

LAS VEGAS

Take ball, go home

To the editor:

Growing up in Indiana in the '50s and '60s, we used to have pickup baseball and football games. Back then, not everyone owned a ball, so the one who did got to make the rules. If the rest of us didn't go along, he would take his ball and go home.

Same thing just happened in the House of Representatives. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, not wanting a up-or-down vote on domestic oil drilling even though 70 percent of American citizens are in favor of it, took her ball (adjourned the House) and went home, just a day before Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama told us to fill up our tires and get a tune-up (most newer cars don't need tune-ups for 100,000 miles). That, he said, would have the same effect on gasoline prices as drilling.

If $4-per-gallon gas is hurting you and your family, please remember this November when you go to the polls that it is the Democrats who have been against oil production and the development of other affordable sources of energy, such as coal-fired power plants and nuclear power.

By the way, dish soap works very well getting tire grime off your hands.

Robert Gardner

HENDERSON

This is leadership?

To the editor:

At long last, Congress gets its ill-deserved vacation. Instead of biting the bullet and canceling or forgoing their vacation like so many Americans have this year, federal lawmakers go.

Let's see, what have they accomplished? Absolutely nothing, except to attain the lowest approval rating of any Congress in history. Hats off to them for this monumental achievement.

When the new leadership took control, we heard promises of action and openness. Well, the action started with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wanting a bigger jet. I guess that was to help make a smaller carbon footprint to curb greenhouse gases.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, meanwhile, volunteered some great sound bites for Rush Limbaugh.

Oh yes, they did decide to thumb their noses at the American public over the price of oil and the resulting inflation and recession. It is something that we, the little people, will just have to endure, as long as we make sure we vote for them again.

I know in politics it is fashionable to blame others for problems. That is called finger-pointing. We cannot forget that there are three fingers pointing back at you when you point that finger at others. That means you are responsible for change. You, the "leaders" are responsible for the lack of action, as any adult will testify.

As convenient as it is to blame President Bush for everything including the price of chocolate, when Congress comes back from vacation, I will let them know how pleased I am with them. Personally, I think they owe us a refund for inaction and poor job performance.

Darrell Welch

NORTH LAS VEGAS

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: sad Summerlin wrote on August 07, 2008 12:29 AM: Honest Answer, Ed... you don't need good public speaking skills or a New England accent to get an MBA at Yale... Too many people take GWB's public speaking skills and accent for being dim... what does that say about how those who refer to GWB as dim-witted feel about Southerners. Guess people also forget that he ran a number of oil exploration companies in the 1980's and 90's owned the Texas Rangers before governing Texas... yeah... he's a dim-wit alright. Sad Summerlin wrote on August 07, 2008 12:25 AM: Honest Answer, Ed... you don't need good public speaking skills or a New England accent to get an MBA at Yale... Too many people take GWB's public speaking skills and accent for being dim... what does that say about how those who refer to GWB as dim-witted feel about Southerners. Guess people also forget that he ran a number of oil exploration companies in the 1980's and 90's owned the Texas Rangers before governing Texas... yeah... he's a dim-wit alright. So I guess we now have to wonder if a Law Degree for Harvard makes someone dim-witted too... oh, wait, no southern accent there... still an advanced degree from an Ivy League School like Bush.... Ed wrote on August 06, 2008 06:41 PM: I'm curious about a couple of the previous posts. Can someone tell me how a so-called dimwit manages a MBA from a major university like Yale? Unless I am mistaken, Yale leans to the left like most other institutes of higher learning. Sad Summerlin wrote on August 06, 2008 06:20 PM: It has been a long day... Corrections to below post: Energy companies DIVERSIFY not Diversity. Those of you who think it was BAD for Congress to take a vacation, raise your hands... LOL Sad Summerlin wrote on August 06, 2008 06:14 PM: Travis - Energy companies diversity. BP (the second largest oil company in the world) is one of the largest researchers into renewable energy in the Globe... http://www.azobuild.com/news.asp?newsID=1796 Or if you really want to put your money where your mouth is... look at Valero Energy... our nations largest refiner of gasoline... one would think with gas prices where it is, the stock would be going through the roof, but it is way way way down. The truth is that we are all facing energy pains and our congress is doing nothing to free us of these pains, they are obstructing it. So those of you who think that it was good for Congress to take a vacation while we are all suffering, raise your hands. Those of you who wish they could figure out some compromise (regardless of party affiliation) RAISE YOUR OTHER HAND. The only people whose hands aren't up are the ones that are going to type a response here telling me how wrong I am... Al Charlatan wrote on August 06, 2008 04:24 PM: timinator is on to something. If you can't stomach shooting our "representatives" in the face, at least VOTE THEM ALL OUT AT THE EARLIEST OPPORTUNITY. timinator wrote on August 06, 2008 03:20 PM: Folks, Republicrats are globalists, they are not concerned with the average person's problems, only with their agenda to merge nations and regions into a one-world government. To keep complaining about both major parties and their ill-behavior is a waste of time. The globalists want you to lose total confidence in our republican form of government and to accept the North American Union after they've brought us to our knees economically. We're currently $10,000,000,000,000 in debt, haven't we proved that both parties are crappy stewards of our nation? This is all being done by design. Wake up to your awful situation! Jim shoes wrote on August 06, 2008 03:15 PM: Travis please look up your demoncratic party and check who gave to who and who works for who. Every demoncrat has received money from oil. One example is dingy harrys friend Dem Harkin from iowa, his wife is on the board of directors of connoco phillips oil. so many to tell you about its all written in the halls of congress. Turn out the lights on the American people and you are ok with that. Pres. Bush was in oil before he was born. Cheney was working with oil before vice pres. Chant all you want just open your eyes and look, open your ears and hear. No one can change a mind that sees one way. Vote for whoever. dennis1944 wrote on August 06, 2008 12:02 PM: I hope Nancy got her new jet at our expense, no doubt. I have a suggestion as to where she should park that new jet. This is the absolute worst DO NOTHING congress I have ever seen (and I've seen a lot of them. Who the hell, in their right mind would elect people (I use the term loosly) like Dingy Harry and Nancy Pelosi? They seem to lack some vital ingredients; LEADERSHIP, LISTENING TO THE PEOPLE THEY PURPORT TO REPRESENT, AND DOING THE JOB THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO DO! I dont mean taking a five week vacation either. Al Charlatan wrote on August 06, 2008 11:46 AM: "What was the price of a barrel of oil when Bush became president? What is the price now at the end of this reign? " What was the price before the 2006 interim elections? What is the price now? Even MORE "nuff" said. "The fourth point, why would an oil company hold a lease for coal or geothermal?" The same reason they now own formerly small, independent photovoltaic cell manufacturers. Read All Comments