Letters are posted as we receive them during the week, and before they are printed in the paper, so check back frequently to see new letters. If you'd like to send a letter to the editor, use this postmarks submission form, or email your letter directly to mail@austinchronicle.com. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Editor,
    I directly challenge the "Page Two" editorial on June 4. The facts and the scientific evidence show, in contrast to the claims of the 45 reports generated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology committee, that the buildings of the World Trade Center did not collapse by the fires started by the airline crashes but by explosions. The claims that fires did it are scientific swindles from our federal government.
    Who am I to make this claim? I am a physicist (Ph.D. in applied physics, Caltech, 1978) with 40 years' experience in research, having published well over 100 papers and eight books. As an experienced speaker (member of National Speakers Association) I can present the facts and evidence to any audience.
    The NIST committee, while having engineers (primarily a few fire engineers), had no physicists. Their reports in fact blatantly ignore principles of physics. For example, the last NIST report released late 2008 claimed rapidly erupting fires caused Building 7 to fall symmetrically in a 6.5-second virtual free-fall state, in spite of fires being very asymmetric. This contradicts thermodynamics principles and conservation of both energy and momentum.
    Well over 100 reports were made by survivors who reported hearing loud blasting noises just before the collapses, and several blast effects can be seen in the photographs of the tower collapses, with significant damage going out over one-fourth of a mile. With multiple measurements of exceedingly high temperatures, with massive melting of steel observations, and with the "smoking gun" microscopic remnants of thermitic explosives in the rubble, the evidence is overwhelming. Those remnants and the massive amounts of dust from pulverized building materials formed the toxins breathed by the rescue crews, causing at least $1 billion in medical expenses.
    The nature of the collapses and the conservation principle show they were not caused by the fires. Gravity could not provide the energy for breaking up the towers, since more than 10 times that much energy was expended in breaking them apart. Newton's laws of motion show powerful horizontal forces blew out the multiple multistory large pieces of the wall in the North Tower, ripped apart the South Tower, and produced their ballooning pulverized dust clouds.
    We should never forget those mass murders and injuries on 9/11. An action is sorely needed to correct the wholesale errors published on those collapses and to investigate and fully expose all the murderers.

Dear Editor,
    It's my fault, all my fault. I didn't vote in the Chronicle's "Best of Austin" and now I must let it be known … the best cover band for the past 35 years is the Austin All Stars. No one can argue this fact. I was born in a small town in Washington state, in a place where the average person wouldn't know a good musician if Jimi Hendrix were to rise from the grave and slap them with his cold, bony hand. I listened to the radio and dreamed. When I finally got to Austin, my dreams came true the first time I stumbled into the old Steamboat on Sixth and was instantly transfixed by the awesome playing and thick harmonies. They rarely turned down requests. Later, I found out that some of them had backed legends of the music industry and had even played on recordings I had heard on the radio way back in Washington. They called Stevie Ray and Eric Johnson "Kid"! I wasn't about to miss them playing at the Saxon Pub anniversary, and they did not disappoint at all. In fact, they tore it up in an unnatural fashion for men that age. My problem is … well … I can't wait another five to 10 years for another reunion. These guys are not young, and waiting that long is not an option for them or me. Please, Mr. Cotton, book 'em again.

   [Editor's note: Best Cover Band is a category in our Austin Chronicle Music Poll, which you'll get another chance to vote in early next year. In the meantime, this is the first week for our "Best of Austin" 2010 ballot, so you still have a chance to vote in that this year.]

Dear Editor,
    By an interesting coincidence, I had just finished reading The Girl From the Fiction Department: A Portrait of Sonia Orwell, by Hilary Spurling, when "A Night in Barcelona" was the theme of Michael Ventura's June 18 “Letters at 3am.” The theme and characters and people are scattered in the book, especially in the early sections. I wonder if Ventura has read the superb biography, which is also a chronicle of art, theatre, literature, and life in England and France, notably London and Paris, covering the several decades after World War II. It also clearly clears Sonia Orwell's behavior after his death. This is a fascinating story for anyone, and if copies can be located, a great read.

Dear Editor,
    John Callaghan (“Postmarks,” June 11) has it wrong when he claims that Israeli citizens are required to be Jewish. Actually, at least 15% of Israel's voting citizenry are Arab Israelis who are Muslims or Christians and who are represented by several non-Jewish members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. This has been true of the Knesset since the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.
    As for Helen Thomas, her remarks were not confined to the West Bank or Gaza; rather, her position is that Israel itself is illegitimate, which is nonsense. Despite her many decades described as a journalist, Thomas is utterly ignorant of Israeli demographics in her apparent belief that most or all Jewish Israelis have their roots in Europe or elsewhere in the West. The fact is that most Jewish Israelis are the descendants of Jews from the Muslim world, such countries as Morocco, Iraq, Yemen, etc., from which they were "encouraged" to leave (forcibly expelled, for the most part) and to do so after being dispossessed of everything but their lives during the 1940s and early 1950s. And, no, these were not "Zionist agents" but communities of centuries-old duration that were made refugees in numbers (as many as 800,000) which equaled or exceeded the number of Arab Palestinians displaced by the 1948 fighting. These Sephardi or Mizrahi Jews have been the majority in Israel for about 40 years. You would think a journalist like Thomas might have been aware of this fact; it's hardly a secret. But this would have required her to crack a book or, oddly, read a newspaper of some stature.

Dear Editor,
    A small story in your June 18 issue about Austin Water and its environmental policy piqued my interest [“Naked City,” News]. It was notable not for what it said, but for what it didn't.
    The article lauded a new computer system that will save energy and money. While it sounds like a great project, it would be good if it were understood in context. Water utilities across America are energy guzzlers, and Austin's is no different. Estimating energy use from the numbers printed in the Chronicle, the savings from the computer system will amount to less than one-half of 1% of total water/wastewater system electric use in Austin.
    More importantly, my own analysis of Austin Water data from fiscal years 2002 through 2009 reveals no discernible pattern of energy savings. The utility's "key indicators" of kilowatt hours of use per million gallons of water and wastewater have essentially been level throughout this time period. And the utility's commitment to convert to 100% green power has been almost ignored.

Dear Editor,
    The article “Our Bodies, Our Cars” [News, June 11] makes no mention of sidewalks, and the accompanying photo shows a recreational trail. Walking on recreational trails is good for the health of the walkers, true. But most trail users drive cars to the trail. That's bad for the air and the climate, bad for other people's health, bad for traffic congestion, and bad for land use (a large part of parkland is used to park cars). Moreover, poorer people and people without cars cannot drive or pay for transportation to the trail. So those most in need of the health benefits of walking are left out.
    On the other hand, consider the effect on public health of building out Austin's sidewalk plan, of finishing the sidewalk system within, say, 10 years. Suddenly every resident of Austin would have a walking route from the front door to anywhere in the city. Free transportation would become available to everyone. Think of the economic boost to poor people. Poor people, old people, children, and disabled people could all enjoy the health benefits and pleasures of walking. Car owners would walk for short trips instead of driving if a safe, pleasant, car-free walkway started at their front doors.
    Sidewalks would make it possible for small neighborhood stores to do business without parking lots. Sidewalks would make an Austin bicycle-rental plan feasible. Sidewalks would give pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists a way to step out of traffic jams. Sidewalks would cut the number of traffic deaths and injuries by giving people a refuge from the cars. They would make it possible to evacuate areas in an emergency. They would create greater social equality, and visceral appreciation for shade trees.
    Please, let's stop dragging our feet on sidewalk construction. Finish the sidewalk system now!

Dear Editor,
    Does anyone know just how polluted Texas waterways are? Take a look at this link from Texas Parks and Wildlife (www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/annual/fish/consumption_bans). Even the Gulf Coast is so polluted they are recommending not eating the larger fish, and this was before the BP spill. How did it get this bad?

Dear Editor,
    While Wells Dunbar did an excellent job of explaining the system that cab drivers are forced to work under in the city of Austin, he gave City Council a pass and failed to highlight that this is the system that is created and perpetuated by our city’s elected officials [“Sharecropping on Wheels,” News, June 11].
    Council Member Mike Martinez can no longer hide behind past city councils and cast the blame for this system upon them. Along with the rest of City Council, save Bill Spelman, Martinez voted to continue the monopoly of Yellow Cab and this sharecropping system.
    Thank you for your time.

Dear Editor,
    To defend one's own life or the life of another requires no constitutional amendment. Conservatives support unfettered gun ownership because “when seconds count, the police are minutes away.” It is apparently OK with them to preemptively restrict civil rights and liberties because someone might say or do something they don't agree with, but somehow that logic does not apply to regulation of industries with a penchant to cause environmental harm or a device like a handgun that by design and intent has killing as its sole purpose. “But a gun is just a tool, like a hammer,” or so the argument goes. True, a hammer is a tool, intended to hit things like nails, and when a hammer drives a nail it is being used as intended. Yes, it just lays there until someone picks it up. The difference? A hammer can be used to kill people, but that is not its intended use (and you would have to work pretty damn hard at it if you wanted to kill a lot of people at one time with a hammer). A gun, particularly a handgun, has one purpose, and it is not driving nails.

Dear Editor,
    I hear the assertion made by Rand Paul and repeated by many in the "tea" movement that the only legitimate functions of government are protection of property, protection of borders, and enforcing contracts. They seem to consider these so self-evident that they do not justify why these are above all the other rights claimed over history. Some claim a right, such as a "right to health care," is an obligation on someone else to provide you with this care and is a seizure of power over this person. The right to own property is exactly the same. A constabulary is established to help you retain/get back your property, a court system with punishments reinforces this right. If we are truly responsible for ourselves, why so much support? Everyone should be armed and know how to defend themselves. Wealthy people would have to act like they have throughout history, and today in much of the world, and hire security. I say only wimps need a nanny state to protect property. I prefer guns and dogs. However, health care seems like a reasonable right to have, at least to patch you up after fighting off intruders!

Dear Editor,
    I never really understood what the term "no redeeming quality" meant when used to refer to art or literature until I saw your "cartoon strip" Maakies. The strip never makes sense and frankly is often stupid and gross. The latest strip showing the "true story" of the author defecating on a public street and then cleaning it up with a doggie bag is pretty par for the course. The only thing that I can figure out is that someone on your staff is good friends with the cartoonist. With so many good local cartoonists available, why do you waste your space with such, um … excrement?

Dear Editor,
    It makes my blood boil every time I read that Leander Mayor John Cowman is preaching to the citizens of Austin that Capital Metro is not a "social service" and should charge the disabled and elderly to ride Metro's buses [“Welcome to Capital Metro,” News, June 18]. He is quoted as saying, "I don't mean to be cruel or insensitive, but I think it's very important that we empower each other and all pitch in to build Capital Metro." The people who pay taxes in Austin built a rail line to Leander that benefits the people of Leander a thousand times more than it benefits the people of Austin. If that rail line had gone to any other destination but Leander, John Cowman would have been screaming his head off that it was socialism, but since it benefited him and his city, it's OK. And now, after he's got his slice of the socialist pie, he doesn't want anyone else to get so much as a crumb. John Cowman should be ashamed of himself.

Dear Editor,
    Re: "Bicyclists Are Superior" [“Postmarks,” June 18]: And now, Mr. Wall, here's what your superior bicyclists do do: Run stop signs at full speed day and night; run stoplights at full speed day and night; pass autos on the right who are attempting to turn right; pass autos on the left who are attempting to turn left; pass autos in between lanes; cross lanes without looking in any direction for other traffic; travel dangerously slower than the posted speed limit; travel in areas not designated for traffic; pull off curbs or out of blind alleys and drives without looking for oncoming traffic; travel at night with no lights or reflectors; ride too close to motorists to lecture them on how they should be driving; stop traffic to lecture motorists on how they should be driving; cause traffic bottlenecks with their superior marathons; inspire road rage at their very sight; write whiny letters to the editor about how superior they think they are.

Dear Editor,
    Re: “Bicyclists Are Superior” [“Postmarks,” June 18]: Perhaps bicyclists would get more respect from motorists if they did not impede traffic by riding several abreast in automobile lanes when clearly marked and unoccupied bike lanes are immediately alongside them and if they did not habitually violate traffic regulations. I almost hit one bicyclist when he ignored a four-way stop and have seen bicyclists cross busy Anderson Lane against a red light.
    Re: “Biking Key for a Livable City” [“Postmarks,” June 18]: Major improvements in infrastructure (bicycle tunnels, bridges, greenbelt bikeways, etc.) would, no doubt, increase safety. Motorists have paid, for many decades, taxes (sales, license, fuel, etc.) to build and maintain streets and roads. It seems only fair that bicyclists should then be required to purchase annual licenses and pay taxes to fund the infrastructure they demand.

Dear Editor,
    Re: “No Disc, No Pease” [News, June 18]: I am opposed to the Parks and Recreation Department's plan for removing disc golf permanently from Pease Park. I understand that the Shoal Creek stabilization project is important, but to blame disc golf is wrong. This project would be necessary even if disc golf had not been there for the past 21 years. Consider all of the work done on the creek banks north of this area (between Gaston and West 29th). Consider the recent story about the family on West 39th losing their backyard to Shoal Creek’s erosion. There is no disc golf up there.
    I strongly believe that: 1) PARD shouldn’t remove the course for the main creek bank project until it is absolutely necessary; 2) if some smaller projects need to happen leading up the major one, fine; but only move/remove the holes in the affected areas; let the disc golf community adjust things as the work moves along, keeping a viable course there as long as possible; 3) none of the course should be removed until a new course is up and running, not “promised,” not “in the works,” but in the ground and operating; and 4) when the project is complete, I want a 100% commitment from PARD and the city that disc golf will be reinstalled as a feature of the park.
    Disc golf is appropriate for Pease Park. It can be done in a sustainable way and can blend with the other uses of the park if the course is properly redesigned when the creek work is complete. It is one of the few recreational uses that can be done there due to the serious flooding that often occurs. It also provides a nearly constant presence of ordinary citizens throughout the park, thus limiting other “undesirable” activities and helping to keep all the park users more safe.