Warning:<\/b> The following blog post contains ridicule of the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/i> and a Republican senator with good hair. No actual copies of the R-J<\/i> were harmed in the writing of this post.<\/p>\n
*****<\/p>\n
There I was, thinking that I was living in a (mostly) booming metropolis — albeit going through one of its periodic "down" cycles. It's a city that's grown too fast for the infrastructure to keep pace; ditto "quality of life" necessities like parks, libraries and schools, of which we never seem able to build quite enough.<\/p>\n
But these are<\/i> symptoms of growth, as we draw not only a vast number of international visitors but myriad new residents as well (some of them here illegally, it's true). I don't see as many casino-employee name tags anymore of the sort that informed you your check-in clerk was Corazon from Manila, for instance, and that's a pity. They were a tacit tribute to the "Las Vegas dream" that's lured so many here from faraway climes, yours truly included.<\/p>\n
So I look out my office window at the third (and counting) tower of the Palms<\/a><\/b>, then turn to the electronic version of the Dogpatch Daily<\/i><\/a> and read that, no, we are not a burgeoning city with a massive resort industry but "a remote desert town built to indulge Americans' fantasies." (I guess overseas fantasists need not apply.) And this from the paper's tourism correspondent<\/i>! "Remote desert town"? "Indulge … fantasies"? Did they send him to report on Pahrump<\/b> by mistake?<\/p>\n And then, as if the Average Joe hadn't figured this out already, we get the thunderingly obvious observation, "Every extra dollar would-be tourists cough up at their hometown gas stations and grocery stores is a buck that won't be shoved into a slot machine, slipped to a hotel desk clerk in hopes of a room upgrade or tucked into a dancer's G-string this weekend."<\/p>\n Really?<\/i> Ya think<\/i>? Just maybe? Did you omit any clichés there, perhaps? Oh, and if anybody believes an "extra dollar" will be sufficient to get themselves a room upgrade, then their Vegas really isn't<\/i> showing.<\/p>\n Add Sen. John Ensig<\/b>n (R-Shadow Creek) to the list of Las Vegans who seemingly hate Las Vegas<\/a>. According to the Las Vegas Sun<\/i> (which, unlike the Dogpatch Daily<\/i>, has the mentality of a big-city newspaper), the exquisitely coiffed young senator "isn’t convinced Nevada needs [Congressional] money to handle the hepatitis C crisis." Translation: If you're among the estimated 15,000 people who can't afford a $200 hepatitis test, drop dead.<\/p>\n Other items the Sun<\/i> says Ensign found "offensive" were 13-week extensions of unemployment benefits and home-heating subsidies for poor people (during a recession, fer crissakes!). “I have always been very consistent about caring about our children and our grandchildren," crocodile-wept the well-heeled Circus Circus<\/b> heir. Yeah, it's just their parents and grandparents — some of whom probably used to work for your dad — about whom you can't give a rat's ass.<\/p>\n Ensign's also against the Webb version of the GI Bill (as opposed to the competing McCain one) because its financial assistance to former servicemen and -women "would actually weaken our military because it encourages people to get out."<\/p>\n Ah, so that's how we keep our military strong: Not by incentivizing people to serve but by essentially throwing them from the train when they choose to leave. Brilliant! "Re-enlist or face poverty." Heckuva job, Brownie, er, John.<\/p>\n Although I'm not a Republican<\/b>, the elephant party would have surely done better in '06 and would be more fearsome this year if they had more plain-spoken, principled representatives and candidates like New Jersey's Murray Sabrin<\/b><\/a>. He and I would never agree on environmental issues or the Brady Bill, for instance, but I sure like the cut of his jib, as the saying goes. (His Iraq policy, which boils down to "We won; let's leave," would find a lot of takers, too.)<\/p>\n Check out the audio excerpts<\/a>, in which Sabrin gets right to the point while opponent Dick Zimmer<\/b> hems, haws and obfuscates like the Washington hack he is. Sabrin probably won't make it past the primary, which is too bad because he has the makings of a terrific candidate, and would have considerable appeal to Libertarians and proverbial "swing voters." But if you liked George W. Bush<\/b> you'll love Dick Zimmer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Warning: The following blog post contains ridicule of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and a Republican senator with good hair. No actual copies of the R-J were harmed in the writing of this post. ***** There I was, thinking that I … Continue reading