Opinion

Photo submitted by Carson Now reader Monica Ward.

It started out as one of those lazy days in Carson City, where it’s not too hot, but it’s not too cold!

It’s just right!

But, when the mercury begins to creep into the triple digits, I am glad I take advantage of the cooler temperatures early in the summer season, because I hate to cook on my patio when it is 100 degrees in the shade!

This is the reason I go straight to my favorite BBQ restaurant for my semi-annual feasting of pork ribs, with corn bread, cole slaw and beans, coupled with my favorite adult libation.

To the editor:
Sheriff's deputies will enforce a lock-down (forced eviction) on 84 year old decorated Korean War Veteran, Rick Ostler early Friday, June 27.

Although Ostler has his rent paid through July 31, the Terrace Apartment management, where Ostler lives on Fifth Street in Carson City, has filed criminal misdemeanor assault charges against Ostler. To counter the allegation, Ostler submitted to and passed a lie detector test, proving, he says, contrived charges by Terrace Apt. personnel.

At one time, I use to be proud to call myself a conservative and a Republican. I considered myself to be a “classical conservative”, one who believes in limited government, free markets, individual liberty, a strong national defense, and firmly believed that the role of government should be to provide people the freedom necessary to pursue their own goals, and the placement of the individual in our society above that of the collective wisdom of the government.

The brilliance of classical conservatism is, and still remains, in its simplicity.

There is no one in this world that is going to get out alive, and every now and then we are hit in the gut with this reality.

In this last week we have lost two public figures: Eugene Paslov and Marv Texiera, who with their passion and enthusiasm for what they believed in, made a difference in our community.

What is Common Core (CC) and why should you care?

Its proponents say CC is merely a set of standards for kindergarten through twelfth-grade education developed by disinterested and public-spirited experts at the request of the nation’s governors and state school superintendents.

To the Editor: The Nevada primary elections are very close and I’d like to say a word about Ron Knecht.
Ron is running for the Office of State Controller. The Controller has a detailed and serious position: to ensure that the state’s funds are spent as intended and to audit the auditors.

I’ve known Ron for a number of years, and I’ve never seen anyone challenge his integrity or his character. Ron has been endorsed by the Nevada Republican Party, the Republican Assembly, the NRA and others.

Ron is against common core and stands for the tax payer. He is as conservative a man as I know.

As president of the Peace Officers Association of Nevada, I speak on behalf of 36 Nevada law enforcement associations and more than 1,500 law enforcement officers and members — and none of my members wants additional semi-trailer truck configurations unleashed onto Nevada highways.

Unfortunately, though, legislation in Congress is currently being debated that would allow heavier trucks in three states. Not only would this bill run counter to the position held by the Nevada law enforcement community that bigger trucks threaten highway safety, it would fly in the face of common sense.

The Rest of the Story

This in reply to Mr. James O. Hartman’s letter to the editor in the May 21st issue of the RC. Mr. Hartman, I will address you in the first person in this reply. Facts are stubborn things.

Let me be clear that I draw a parallel to your reporting in the RC opinion page with what in the 30’s was called yellow journalism. Use of the journalism in the same sentence with your name does a disservice to journalists everywhere even those in the mainstream.

In your article:

I was involved and here is the recap.

An anonymous employee of Carson City contacted Fraud, Waste and Abuse Hotline to report the following:

"In January 2014 on two different occasions [Jim Shirk] made 2,000 copies on a City copy machine and on another occasion [Jim Shirk] made 17,000 in one single day, on a City copy machine".

These accusations made against me were completely false and I knew the truth and I knew it would be discovered.

The purpose of my letter is to express my hearty support for PK O’Neill. I have personally vetted both Republican candidates for the Assembly seat in Assembly District 40. Of the two, Mr. O’Neill responded to my questions promptly and gave answers that convince me he is the stronger candidate in standing for the rights of Nevadans.
Equally important as his answers was the fact that he took the time to discuss the issues, and in doing so, showed his willingness to truly serve the people. My vote is for PK!

The CONSERVATIVE message is WINNING

RINO after RINO are running ads on radio and TV and mailing out literature claiming THEY are the “real” Republicans, THEY are the “real” CONSERVATIVES. The establishment is again having to realize they must run as conservatives if they're to have a chance.

Last year's callous, unnecessary killing of Rollie, the tiny pet dog, at the city animal shelter justifiably ignited community outrage. This one event resulted in a $41,000 settlement to Rollie's owner for the wrongful death of her dog, paid, of course, by Carson's residents and business owners. The terminated animal shelter manager, under whose watch Rollie died, is suing city taxpayers for wrongful discharge from her position.

I am always amused by those individuals who attach themselves to the United States Constitution in such a way as to be literal in its interpretation, wrap themselves in the Flag of our Nation, and call themselves “true patriots” and the defenders of our “rights and liberties”.

Apparently, if I disagree with their definition of “true patriotism” then I am something less than a citizen or patriot incapable of defending our “rights and liberties”.

I received an e-mail that asked why the non-profit Greenhouse Project (TGP) could sell mushrooms to Adele's Cafe (Adele's Facebook posting March 22nd). Supervisor Abowd is founder and president of TGP and co-owner with her husband Charlie of Adele's Cafe. The e-mail question and response follow.

The following is 200 words, precisely at the limit for a letter to the editor of a newspaper. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO USE IT.

Dear Governor,
US Senators and Congressmen,
State Senators and Assemblymen,

Please launch a full investigation of the Bundy Ranch incident last week.

A few years ago, some experts predicted the world was about to reach a peak in global oil and gas production to be followed soon by marked decline. It would cause “war, famine, pestilence and death” – the biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Another version: “war, starvation, economic recession, possibly even the extinction of homo sapiens.”

On Saturday April 5 at 11AM there will be a demonstration against Common Core in front of the Legislature Building on Carson Street between 4th and 5th Streets. It s part of a simultaneous multi-state effort.

http://www.carsonnow.org/reader-content/03/26/2014/protest-against-commo...
http://www.pr.com/press-release/550272

To understand why it is very important for everyone to come to this event, please consider the following.

“The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s, the world will undergo famines – hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death …”

So began The Population Bomb, a 1968 advocacy book by Dr. Paul Ehrlich. He indicted American affluence and uncontrolled procreation as key parts of the over-population apocalypse he foresaw and thus as pernicious problems to be solved by Draconian public-sector and even international action.

The Carson City Republican Central Committee (CCRCC) is an organization of local citizens interested in participating in and promoting Carson City Republican Party values and it's candidates for public office.

The membership meets monthly on the fourth Thursday of the month at the Silver State Charter High School. Anyone can attend these meetings and can, as a registered Republican, become a member of the CCRCC. It is an excellent venue to learn the views of local candidates and public office holders as well as share with them your views.

On Tuesday, March 25th, Jed Block, Republican candidate for Assembly District 40, sent the following statement to the Vetting Committee of the Carson City Republican Central Committee. Assembly District 40 encompasses Carson City and portions of Washoe County:

"In Carson City, a recently created, secret Republican Vetting Committee informed me – as an announced Republican candidate for AD 40 – when to appear before them. The closed meeting may not even be observed without an invitation.

Consider that in the Republican Party there has been a sometimes rancorous, sometimes healthy, sometimes divisive debate between conservatives, moderates, progressives, libertarians, evangelicals, social conservatives / fiscal liberals, social liberals / fiscal conservatives, "me too but slower" socialists, big-government competent managers of the welfare state, the TEA Party, Ron Paul supporters, limited-government constitutionalists, etc. , at least since the Goldwater-Rockefeller showdown in 1964.

Dear Governor,

There is no reason why YOU should feel any attachment to Common Core (CCSS). It was an "Every Child Left Behind" and a "Race To The Bottom" application, initiated by the former school chief and revised by the former Governor, which committed Nevada to adopt CCSS. The Legislature followed with bills in 2011 and 2013, none of which specified CCSS. It was the bureaucracy that chose to do that. The NRS, and bills such as AB288, only call for new standards and tests, without ever mentioning or unambiguously prescribing CCSS or SBAC.

My compliments to Jed Block, Republican candidate for the Assembly 40th District, and his courage to reject the attempt by a small coterie of self-righteous, self-anointed, pseudo-intellectual purists of the Carson City Republican Party.

Block was informed when and where he should appear before the “recently created secret Republican Vetting Committee” so it members could decide whether the party should support his candidacy.” (See Nevada Appeal, March 26th.)

Nevada has some amazing people. This is a story about one of them, Dr. Thomas Schwenk, Dean of Nevada’s medical school – a story he tells to inspire beginning medical students and others.

Thirty years ago, after completing their medical residencies, Schwenk and a partner opened an office in a small northern Utah town. They were the only physicians in a large area, the closest hospital was an hour away, and even helicopter transport took time to arrange.

If you live in Reno and are over 80, you may think "Home Means Nevada" is a stirring song.

But many people in the rest of Nevada, especially in Southern Nevada — with three-fourths of the state's population — never have seen the Truckee River, which runs from Lake Tahoe down through Reno. And unless the dictionary is your favorite book, you won't know a rill from a thrill.

“Four thousand faces of American military who had perished in Iraq stared at me,” said former Western Nevada College professor Don Carlson. “I realized that this war has been perhaps one of the most impersonal wars the U.S. ever fought.”

In 2008, the army veteran saw a Roster of the Dead, then totaling 4,000. He explains that with the all-volunteer military, more than in any previous war, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been remote to the vast majority of Americans. Impersonal.

I asked several downtown people what they think or feel about the passing of the 1/8th cent sales tax and what they see for Carson City’s future. The feelings are mixed, but the hope for an improved Carson City are united, the methods on how to do it have been up for discussion for many years and will be for many years to come.

Today Lori Bagwell pointed to the Plan of Expenditure at the Board of Supervisors meeting and asked for clarification before the Board took its final vote on the 8th of a cent sales tax increase.

We were relieved to read that not all tribal members are supporting the proposed motocross track on the Washoe Tribe’s land. It gave us hope that the Washoe people really do believe in their statement that “the Washoe Tribe have long considered themselves stewards of our land and continue to maintain that position, never to compromise or sacrifice our environmental and archeologically sensitive lands.”

In our opinion the development of a motocross track in the proposed location would be a complete contradiction to this statement.