Letters to the Editor Aug. 16

Reader dumbfounded by deer encounter

Nature is not benign. We were sitting on a friend's porch on Carson City's West Side of an evening two weeks ago, and the dog (a black and tan chow/husky mix) was out on the lawn behind the low metal fence. We saw three deer - two does and a fawn - emerge from a yard across the street and begin walking up the street, passing by the house. The dog barked, which initially startled the deer.

They stopped and looked at the barking dog, and then slowly walked toward the fence to stare at the dog; he stopped barking. Suddenly, the larger doe jumped the fence, put her head down, and charged the dog, front legs kicking. I hopped down from the porch, clapping and yelling, and called the dog back.

After a few seconds, the deer stopped and stared at me, then (seemingly grudgingly and unflustered) turned to hop the fence and join its companions. The three continued their walk up the street as the dog, limping slightly and pride hurt, joined us on the porch. The four of us were dumbfounded.

Tom Strekal

Carson City

Hmmm, guess I'll be the gadfly again. I applaud Prime Minister David Cameron and his point during a speech during the United Kingdom riots. Parents are ultimately responsible for the misconduct of the kids.

I wish a politician, besides Mr. Obama, would have the guts and fortitude to say something like that here. I am thinking of the smashed property at Seeliger, down to my ridiculous Chichester Home Association. Why can't parents actually teach their kids about common decency and respect?

Good manners are free. So is personal responsibility. In my home association, we are required to maintain a nice front yard area. What is the point? These hoodlums and thugs, some as young as five, come in what I consider gangs and destroy plants, sculptures, vehicles, etc. Where is the responsibility? You go and confront these hoods like adults would do when I was young, and the cops end up hassling the offended homeowner.

This community is big on talking about family values, but when it comes to reality, there is a massive disconnect. Take responsibility for your kids - and this is across the board - whites, Latinos, Asians. All strata of society are guilty.

Everyone knows the Waterfall Fire was committed by connected kids, yet I have seen no one taking responsibility for that mess. Parents, if you have kids, be a good example. Do your job as the leaders you should be in your families. Then family values might be more that just more hot air.

Othman Ali

Gardnerville

We have arrived at the United Soviet States of America. We will now have a Soviet Central Committee called the Super Congress that will rule the roost. We have 35 appointed Commisars called Czars. We have a Soviet-style secret police directorate called Homeland Security with unlimited police powers under the Patriot Act which will have more enforcement personnel in the future called for by President Obama. How did this happen? Here is one contributing factor.

In 1953, the Carroll Reese Committee was investigating the activities of large tax-exempt foundations, such as Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie and others because of their apparent subversive activities.

One Committee investigator, Norman Dodd, had an off-the-record interview with Rowan Gaither of the Ford foundation. Mr. Gaither told Dodd, "Mr. Dodd, all of us who have a hand in the making of policies here have had experience either with the OSS during the war or the European Economic Administration after the war. We've had experience operating under directives, and these directives emanate and did emanate from the White House. Now, we still operate under just such directives. All of us who have a hand in the making of policies here have had experience operating under directives, the substance of which is that we shall use our grant-making power to so alter life in the United States that it can be comfortably merged with the Soviet Union."

Dodd asked Mr. Gaither to repeat that before the committee. Mr. Gaither said, "Absolutely not."

Alan C. Edwards

Carson City