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 Mr. or Ms. Editor,
    I write to you in response to your article concerning the goobernatorial aspiration of Mr. Kinky Friedman [“Here Comes the Guv,” News, Feb. 17]. To moi, the most important first test of a candidate for state office is, naturally, the anagrams that one can make out of his or her name.
    The only anagram I can think of for our present Governor, Rick Perry is ... Pricky Err. Not the best anagram for our leader, eh?
    However, if one considers Kinky Friedman, the anagrams I found included the following: I fry mink naked; Fry mankind, Ike; I drank my knife; Kink me if randy; Dr. Kinky Famine; and Rinky Dink Fame, among hundreds of other anagrams of lesser interest.
    To moi, this puts the Kinkster far ahead in the early lead within the crowded race for an anagrammatically creative candidate.
    I would bring up anagrams for the candidacy of Carole Keeton Strayhorn McClellan Strayhorn Rylander Strayhorn, but they would generate enough words to write a lengthy romance novel.

Dear Editor,
    Re: “Letters @ 3am,” Feb. 17, Sorry We Missed Church by Michael Ventura: I read this whole ludicrous article. It is absurd. It is outrageous! Makes me wish I'd said it. And that more of us would "get it.” Well done, Mr. Ventura.

Dear Editor,
    Thanks for reporting on the two citizen-initiated city charter amendments, one to protect Barton Springs and one to make Austin a leader in direct disclosure of city information to the public via the Internet [“SOS: The Amendment That Didn't Bark,” News, Feb. 17].
    Chronicle readers may ask why Jo Clifton, owner and lead reporter of the city insider newsletter In Fact Daily appears hostile to the Open Government Online amendment sponsors. While a fine reporter, Ms. Clifton's work thrives on leaks of city insider news. The proposed charter measure would give her instant access to far more city information than is currently available. But it would give everyone this increased access. Like other city insiders, Ms. Clifton may fear that her superior access to inside information may lose value if everyone has timely and instant access to what our city is doing.
    City officials hate, hate, hate the Open Government Online amendment because it would go a very long way toward putting an end to the “done deal first, public disclosure second” process that is standard operating procedure at City Hall. Think $58 million in tax giveaways for Samsung, $100 million cash for LCRA, AMD moves to the Hill Country, Champions on 2222, Gables on Town Lake, etc. With the Internet we have an opportunity to reclaim public ownership of public information so that Austin's future may be shaped more by caring citizens and less by insider lobbyists.

Dear Editor,
    I already wrote awhile back about how Texas bands of the Sixties are loved and played constantly on KWVA in Eugene, Ore., where I work, but I couldn't resist after reading this article about Roky Erickson [“Starry Eyes,” Music, Dec. 30]. It makes me love and admire the people of Austin all the more the way Roky is given the respect and praise so obviously understood by you all. What the Elevators did for Austin and Texas in general is impossible to calculate. Personally, it's given me a lifelong intrigue and fascination with names and places like Kerrville, the Jade Room, the New Orleans club in Austin, La Maison in Houston, the Catacombs and the Living Eye, also in Houston. Not that I expect these places to be around anymore, it's just that I have to go there to see and feel the area responsible for and that helped create the heaviest of the heavies, the band against which all other Texas acts wil forever be compared with.
    When I put on “Thru the Rhythm,” or “You Can't Hurt Me Anymore,” or “Slip Inside This House,” it's like I just know it's pure righteousness and the coolest. Nothing touches what Roky and Tommy Hall and Stacy Sutherland and John Ike Walton put down on tape and by association all Texas benefits. I'm so impressed.

Dear Editor,
    Michael Ventura's Feb. 17 Chronicle piece, Sorry We Missed Church [“Letters @ 3am”], wallows in neo-leftist moral myopia. His “little tin-can car” heroes are malignantly narcissistic, arrogantly flaunting “learning witchcraft and becoming lesbians” with their banal “bumper sticker” chutzpah. Mr. Ventura grovels in moral relativism, implying that these brave social warriors could easily be maligned by the citizens of this “famously right-wing town” while hypocritically maligning those same citizens when he states “they might find their car surrounded by a gaggle of repressed guys in desperate need to prove themselves real men.” And this is but one example of his hypocrisy.
    Moreover, Mr. Ventura's comments about freedom and America are hackneyed neo-leftist platitudes speciously reinforcing the delusion that America has “been as bad as we've been good.” Nothing is more untruthful. He reaches a crescendo when he touches on advocating social fascism bloviating that “those gals are saying to Lubbock, 'your idea of normal is over. Now it's normal for you to have to deal with us. However threatening we are to you.'” Is a neo-leftist Gestapo necessary to “enforce a dictum of normality”?
    But most disturbing is Mr. Ventura's obvious denial of America's current lethal challenge. Specifically, America is being severely tested by one question – do Americans mutually possess the moral courage to defeat totalitarian Islamist fascism? The answer must be a resounding yes, otherwise humanity will be enslaved. Mr. Ventura cannot grasp this mortal reality.
    On September 11, 2001, the barbarous forces of Islamist fascism declared war on America. If they prevail all debate is over, because, ironies of ironies, they will “enforce a dictum of normality.” Homosexuals and witches will be summarily tortured and executed. Non-Muslims and women will be chattel. Mr. Ventura, et al, must awaken and focus on defending liberty and America, for as Bob Dylan famously wrote, “the hour is getting late.”

Dear Editor,
    This week you swallowed a story from Jo Clifton, apparently without checking into it very deeply [“SOS: The Amendment That Didn't Bark,” News, Feb. 17]. Since I was mentioned as one of three nefarious open-government advocates meeting in secret with the city, I must tell you that almost nothing about that tale was true. I did indeed attend a meeting, at the city's invitation, where they were to outline their concerns with the open-government amendment. It would have been rude and unproductive to say no. However, Jo Clifton did not come to City Hall that day, nor did she try to get permission to attend that meeting. We didn't meet in a "room without windows," nor did she ask for comments afterward, because I would have happily given her something to write about.
    I understand from others that she did try and attend another meeting, also set up by the city, with other people some time earlier – and that the city, not the environmentalists, kept her out of that meeting. If the city barred her from this other meeting when she was welcome by those in the meeting, the only story here is that the city should be more open. On that, I hope we can all agree.
    My commitment to open government is long, unwavering, and unconditional. The open-government initiative is a wonderful opportunity for the city to make its own unwavering and unconditional commitment to transparency. Reporters are and always will be a fundamental part of that, but only if they check their facts and get the story straight.

   [News Editor Michael King responds: As the story ("SOS: The Amendment That Didn't Bark") indicates, after reading Jo Clifton's story in In Fact Daily and asking her about it, I spoke to Save Our Springs director Bill Bunch. He confirmed the incident but insisted, as I quoted him in the story, that city staff barred Clifton from the meeting. It was Bunch who told me who attended the meeting; if he conflated two meetings into one or I misunderstood him concerning the attendees, I apologize to Kathy Mitchell, but it hardly alters the substance of the story. By "almost nothing about that tale was true," in her retelling appears to be confined to the fact that she didn't play a featured role in the tale. No doubt if Mitchell had been there, she would have defied her colleagues and adamantly rejected any attempt by city officials to bar Clifton from the meeting, and fallen on her open-government sword had they refused.]

Dear Editor,
    Re: Bumper-sticker babes [“Letters @ 3am,” Feb. 17]: I was startled by the depth of insight in your story. I agree completely. One can only hope that when the whole enchilada goes south it does so quietly and peacefully. I doubt it. Thanks.

Dear Editor,
    The story of Vice-President Dick Cheney's hunting accident in which he shot his hunting buddy might lead cowardly un-American liberals to believe the hunting trip was a mistake or some kind of misguided adventurism. However, we real Americans believe that the vice-president should not be discouraged by casualty figures.
    It's a slam dunk that the farm-raised, dull-witted quail that the hunters drive right up to and almost shoot from the back seat of their chauffered Land Rovers are in their last throes and that most of the cow pasture's other inhabitants will greet the vice-president and his entourage as liberators and will cast flowers and sweets in their path and will quickly establish a Jeffersonian democracy. Let us pray that Vice-President Cheney will stay the course in South Texas to stop the feathered evildoers from attacking Central Texas cities with droppings of mass destruction.

Dear Austin Chronicle Editor,
    In your article last week [“Primary Colors: Part II,” News, Feb. 17], you stated that Commissioner Karen Sonleitner,"supported floating a gas-tax option as a toll road alternative, a proposition supported by anti-tollsters." That is not the case.
    I was there on April 27, 2005 in the House Ways and Means Committee hearing to testify for the option for a region to vote on a local gas tax as opposed to freeway tolls. Karen Sonleitner was there to push the local gas tax in addition to the freeway tolls.
    The article also states that "blaming Sonleitner for the toll plan has been overblown.” Sonleitner is responsible. In that same committee hearing, Sonleitner herself stated that she worked extensively to help create the authority. The unelected board members of the toll authority are mostly Williamson County people that will set the toll rates for roads we've already paid for here in Travis County, while Williamson County gets more freeway built without tolls. The state comptroller has since found that the toll authority creates double taxation without accountability, as well as favoritism and self-enrichment.
    E-mail records from 2003 show Sonleitner pushed Judge Biscoe to "expedite" a Travis County tax giveaway of $550,000 to the bureaucratic tolling authority as seed money. Sonleitner voted to privatize and toll hundreds of millions of dollars worth of our public highways! The fact is, Austin public highways will be the first freeways in the country to be shifted to toll roads, permanently taking expressways away from citizens that paid for them. The added tax to move all goods and services in Central Texas will increase our cost of living, as the additional freeway toll expense will get passed on to our families. Sonleitner's financial reports show the same special interests who profit from the freeway tolls fund her campaign.
    It's time for Karen Sonleitner to be held accountable in the Democratic primary taking place now.

   [News Editor Michael King responds: Despite Sal Costello's tendentious and Manichean rewriting of history, Commissioner Karen Sonleitner attended the Ways and Means Committee meeting, along with several of her colleagues from CAMPO, to support a bill allowing a regional gas-tax option as an alternative to toll-road funding of highways, as we reported.]

Dear Editor,
    Loved the cover [“The New Texas Family Planning,” News, Jan. 27]. Two points: One, to paraphrase Carlos Castaneda, being self-important requires that you go around being offended by the words and deeds of others; two, the only way Bible nazis can get away with sexual obsessions is to be against them. Thanks for continuing to expose those sex-obsessed, self-important, sanctimonious wretches.

Dear Editor,
    Last night I watched John Fogerty on Austin City Limits. As I listened to him belt out “Favorite Son,” it hit me. Our generation got off our butts and drove LBJ out of office because of Vietnam. Where is the outrage about today's Vietnam?

Dear Editor,
    Kudos to Lee Nichols for what appears to be a solid, sober, and relatively evenhanded overview of the APD response to the March 20, 2003 anti-war demonstration [“Point Austin,” News, Feb. 17].
    Rare seems the article which makes any attempt to give credence to more than one side of an issue, and without resorting to shrill or sensationalist language, particularly in the context of what was doubtless an emotionally charged situation. I don't entirely agree with Lee Nichols' viewpoint, but I do applaud his reporting. I'll be looking for more articles by Lee Nichols in the future.
    Many thanks to the Chronicle for filling the news gap in Austin.

Dear Editor,
    I read the letter Loves Perry/Prove Others Don't by Ed Preston [“Postmarks,” Feb. 17], this Sunday. The same day the independent poll noted by Ed was released by the Dallas Morning News.
    In your face Amy Smith! A huge minority of Texans, almost 37% would vote for Gov. Perry. Many Republicans including his predecessor and the most popular president ever, GW, would love approval ratings this high!
    Liberals like Amy Smith need to get off their “liberal media” high horse and realize that the vast minority of Texans don't care about things like “honest government,” “citizens rights,” “education,” or “health care.” These things went out the door with the “attack” and Rick Perry is the only governor to lead us through Rita!
    As for fundraising, Gov. Perry, or “the Rickster” as I call him, shouldn't be ashamed of his massive lead in fundraising. The 25 (plus or minus) people who have donated to his $11.5 million campaign fund could be among the people most Texans trust to not rip them off.
    I'm with Ed. Until you liberal wackos can prove some kind of “overwhelming” majority, I think you should just keep quite.
    Adios mofo. Save your vote, don't vote in March.

Dear Editor,
    Goodness gracious, people! I don't know where all this hatred is coming from, but I suggest we all take a step back, breathe, and count to 10. I reference Mr. Vance McDonald and Mr. Russell Kirkman, especially (“Postmarks,” Feb. 17).
    Issues of religion, war, and culture are deeply meaningful for all of us, we feel strongly about them and probably feel threatened if it seems the majority doesn't see the issue the way we do. However, I can think of no reason we can't discuss these issues reasonably and respectfully.
    I am a _____, _____, _____, _____ (fill in identifiers here), yet I have friends, acquaintances, and co-workers who aren't. Strangely enough, we are able to talk about a lot of the hot-button issues of the day and remain friendly. I respect them even when their positions differ from mine. Knock wood, the conversations have never degenerated into sarcasm and name-calling. Even though we support different solutions to our world's problems, we are all sincerely searching for solutions.
    This is what I feel many of us have lost sight of during our debates of emotionally charged issues. The people on the “other side” are people who, like us, are worried about the state of the world and are endeavoring to find solutions. That common ground alone should reinforce our respect for the person we're talking with and our interest in what they have to say. I'm not saying that you should invite Osama bin Laden to sit down for a cup of tea to discuss how we can bridge the chasm between the East and the West, but I am suggesting that you should do that with your neighbors, co-workers, and other letters-to-the-editor writers.
    We gain nothing by shouting at each other. Let's bring respectful, intelligent discourse back into fashion.

Dear Editor,
    Louis Black, whom I understand titles the letters in “Postmarks,” headed a recent letter concerning a town hall meeting where a hefty majority of citizens voted against (a particular) toll road, Surprise! People Don't Want Tolls [Feb. 17]. And in his latest “Page Two” [Feb. 17] writes (in reference to down-but-not-out Ben Bentzin) “Now think for a moment about the anti-toll-road campaign, in which any politician or public official who panders to the voters by coming out against tolls is declared heroic. They are especially well regarded when they don't even broach the subject of how to pay for the maintenance and upkeep on all roads, as well as the costs of building future ones.”
    The word “panders” indicates that Black doubts the sincerity, as well as the practicality, of politicians' anti-toll-road position.
    I thought that the exorbitant tax on gasoline and infrastructure tax paid annually for car registrations were for and could amply cover maintenance costs of old roads, and even build new ones. I think the reason the billions collected in these ways are not sufficient is because of graft. Without plugging that leaky dam, no new tolls are going to be sufficient either, ever.
    Now let me reiterate the real reason for toll roads set up on every access in and out of a city: to have the ability to shut them down and thus make it a virtual prison.
    I watched this happen already when Rita was headed for Houston last year, and 12 hours after evacuation had begun, the incoming, virtually empty lanes of the interstates were yet to be converted to outgoing lanes. A friend of mine burned up a tank of gas without ever leaving the city limits, and turned around to weather the storm to avoid being stranded.

Dear Editor,
    I loved the Tejano music article by Belinda Acosta [“Outlaw Onda,” Music, Feb. 17]. Being from Los Angeles, it is a world I don't really know, but I feel as though I took a first-class tour by a knowledgeable and caring guide. Thank you.

Dear Editor,
    Hey, to all you local weathermen and women. How about you shut the hell up? In your shallow, desperate attempts to pretend you're something other than someone who reads what the National Weather Service tells you, you're screwing the people who work in this town. Friday night, all the idiots from all the local stations were "teasing" the weather, talking about sleet and freezing rain! I went to the NWS home page and guess what? Low temps were predicted to be 42 degrees. Now, I'm not sure where these idiots went to school, but 41 degrees does not make ice nor sleet. Of course, when people hear these morons flapping about the sleet and freezing rain, people don't go out. So, hundreds of bartenders, valets, doormen, and dare I mention hot dog vendors lose thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars each time people don't go out because some asshole thinks water freezes at 41 degrees. So hey, pretend you're something, flap your gums about weather, and cost working people money so you can look important. If it's not going to freeze, shut the hell up. If there's not going to be ice, shut the hell up. If you need to pretend to be important, get a real job instead of pretending reading from a teleprompter is one.

Dear Editor,
    Kinky Friedman's a nice man who loves dogs [“Here Comes the Guv,” News, Feb. 17]. Does this give him the credentials to become governor? No. No.
    In all reality, Richard Friedman is just a frontman for Republicans who want to isolate the apathetic voters from voting for Chris Bell. If not, then why the hell are there so many old line Republicans working on his campaign, and why is Tom DeLay's lawyer hanging around with him?
    There is a real chance to take back the Governor's Mansion, and put the state back into the Democratic rolls. The White House is coming to Austin on March 1 to defend DeLay in the gerrymandering trial. Disenfranchised voters stand a chance to get rid of the clowns in Austin and Washington, but splintering off and voting for the Kinkster will simply aid Gov. Perry, DeLay, and Bush.
    I consider the Kinkster a friend, having known him since the mid-Sixties back in Houston, but he's never answered my question about his being a front for the discontented Republicans. He has said nothing about a tax break for film in Texas.
    OK, he writes cute songs, and went through Bob Dylan's garbage cans. He happens to be Jewish, but so is Joe Lieberman and Jack Abramoff. Why is he running with the right-wing element of the Republicans?
    I'm voting for Chris Bell as a disgusted former Bush fundraiser. I'm also backing John Edwards for presidency.
    Everything in the article convinced me that we need to take back Texas and the nation.

Dear Editor,
    I'd like to compliment Michael Ventura [“Letters @ 3am,” Feb. 17] on succinctly describing many of the thoughts I try to express to my conservative friends in Ventura County, Calif.
    And yet, is there any way he can get his cogent and keen observations condensed enough to fit on that bumper sticker?

Dear Editor,
    Most of the letters I read in the Chronicle seem to be all about attacking specific individuals for their so-called un-American beliefs. While both the Republicans and Democrats routinely use personal attacks to deflect attention away from their own inadequacies, the Republicans just seem to be more hateful about it. What America needs is an honest political party that strays neither too far left or right but takes a truthful and logical approach to all issues, which has seldom occurred in our entire history. But unfortunately, we truly have the government we deserve.

Dear Editor,
    Kinky Friedman has a better chance at becoming a member of the River Oaks Country Club than at becoming governor of Texas [“Here Comes the Guv,” News, Feb. 17]. He won't appeal to liberals because he favors capital punishment. And he won't appeal to conservatives because if you're gonna throw the switch in Texas, you must believe in Jesus. But please y'all, keep sending him your money; this is good theatre, and I want to see some more of it.

Dear Editor,
    Re: It's That Time Again by Michael King [“Point Austin,” News, Feb. 10]: I suspect that many people share Michael King's ambivalence about the gubernatorial race. It is an easy choice for passionate partisans, but the sensible center is stumped. For me, I found more clarity in shifting the geometry of the question. Rather than what policies would I like to see promoted, I am looking at who is most willing and able to improve the process of government. Who is mostly likely to champion nonpartisan redistricting reform, open primaries, bipartisanship, cooperation, collaboration. For me this is Carole Strayhorn. She was a conservative Democrat and then a moderate Republican, and finally an independent when the Republicans leaned too far to the right. I believe she is most likely to grasp the importance of building up the sensible center of governance. If that were all she accomplished I would consider that a meaningful long-term success.

Dear Editor,
    Michael Ventura's column, Sorry We Missed Church, [“Letters @ 3am,” Feb. 17] is simply one of the most brilliant things I've read recently about the current state of our nation. It manages to make a case for American exceptionalism without sounding smug and self-satisfied, and reminds us that much of what is important about our country takes place below the radar of conventional politics.

Dear Mr. Black,
    On several occasions I have had the opportunity to read The Austin Chronicle and have at times enjoyed the thoughtful writings and news items that have appeared.
    The positive sentiment was certainly not the case regarding your Jan. 27 issue. I was extraordinarily disappointed by the front cover, which I believe is an insult to women, to God, and to religion [“The New Texas Family Planning,” News]. I think that you have reached an all-time low in journalism.
    No matter where you stand on the issue of Planned Parenthood or abortion, I think that such a graphic representation is truly inappropriate and does not contribute to the good of our society.
    I respectfully submit this concern and hope that your editorial board will reconsider such indecent displays in the future.
    Wishing you God's blessings, I am

Dear Editor,
    “We have to fight them there so we won't have to fight them here.” Bush on Iraq, right? Sure, but also Johnson on Vietnam.
    Johnson lied about a minor naval incident to coerce Congress into passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, in which Congress relinquished its constitutional duty to declare, or not declare, war. Bush lied more boldly than Johnson about WMD and a nonexistent al Qaeda/Iraq connection, maneuvering Congress into committing a similar constitutional error.
    Johnson printed money to finance the war, leading to rampant inflation. Bush finances his war by mortgaging our children's futures. Neither has the guts to raise taxes to do it.
    Chicken hawks in both eras, with no skin or kin in danger from a foreign war, supported and benefited from the war while shaming and blaming those Americans with the guts to stand up against it. Their rhetoric is indistinguishable if you substitute “terrorist” for “communist.”
    After fully engaging in Vietnam, the worst mistake the U.S. made was to escalate and remain. In the end, 57,363 Americans were needlessly dead. Even though well over 50% of Americans now concede that invading Iraq was a mistake, few in power have the guts to tell us the truth and call for withdrawal. The truth is, every American life lost in Iraq, from the beginning to the bitter end, is lost needlessly. In essence, Iraq is Vietnam.

Dear Mr. Vincent J. May,
    Why, in the first place, toll 290 East, which has been completed for decades now and is not a very high-volume road [“Postmarks,” Feb. 17]?
    Background concept: how to mess up a road. Install long red lights on it, and make sure that traffic must stop for most, if not each of them. Vehicles will collect at each stop, and add, when the light turns green, to the portion of the cross traffic that turned in the same direction. This enlarged group stops at the next red, joining those already there, and the absurdity continues ad nauseam, hideously compounding congestion that was irresponsibly/artificially created to begin with.
    As to why any competent traffic-management outfit would do such a thing, take a look at 183, the improvement of which has become the stuff of entire careers (this 4-or-5-year project has lasted at least 25 years now). Need I amplify? Make 290 a nonfunctioning joke to get folks clamoring for an upper deck, or flyovers, or some other highly expensive long-term project, and if folks fail to clamor, put a toll on the road to pay for the anticipated boondoggle.
    Remember, 290 worked until the developers started looking east, and it could/should still be working.

Dear Editor,
    It's so stupid it almost makes me laugh.
    A few nights ago, APD arrested a youth after a high-speed chase and a brief struggle, during which he got a hold of a Taser and fired upon two officers. Minor injuries were had by all. He was arrested for, among other charges, assault with a deadly weapon. Um ... hello? Has the APD not spent the last several months convincing us that Tasers are not deadly weapons?
    Double standards are the surest sign of creeping injustice, and APD would do well to avoid them.

   [News Editor Michael King responds: Although we share Mr. Wainwright's skepticism about the utility and safety of Tasers, the "assault with a deadly weapon" charge lodged against Joseph Mesa on Feb. 13 was not based on his use of the stun gun; it was a consequence of his ramming a police car with his own car.]

Dear Editor,
    Regarding the Jan. 27 cover [“The New Texas Family Planning,” News]: What on Earth possessed you to do such a thing? Why would you put that filthy, evil book, which is responsible for more murder, racism, sexual dysfunction, and general hatred than any other single thing, in the holy place where human life originates!?
    I just figured that it might be nice, for a change, to provide you with a bit of sane criticism. Never mind the fundamental-patients who wrote their snippy letters; they aren't your audience anyway, and they're always looking to be offended, just like their Islamic brothers who are killing people over cartoons. Just like their weird, humorless, unenlightened god.

Dear Editor,
    Oystein Aarseth owned the record shop/label you mentioned in this article [“Norwegian Black Metal – Photographs,” Arts, May 6, 2005]. The shop wasn't called Euronymous; Aarseth's stage name was Euronymous in the band Mayhem, which he though meant "Prince of Death" in Greek but was actually a Greek demon from the Satanic Bible written by Anton Szandor LaVey. The shop was called Helvete, which meant "hell" in Norwegian.

Dear Editor,
    I would like to refer to the Juanes article you published [“Short Cuts,” Screens, May 7, 2004]. Although a superstar, he is not Mexican but Colombian. Winner of several Latin Grammys.

Dear Editor,
    It takes a true coward to condescendingly admit to being a coward [“Page Two,” Feb. 10] and be proud of it. But then why should Louis Black be any different from any other editor of a gutless manipulative left-wing rag?
    Why don't all of you sodomite apologists start mocking the Koran and Islam the way you attack Christianity? If perverted sots don't like Christianity they're gonna hate Islam! Maybe you could tell them that the 70 virgins they will meet in heaven are actually all lesbians. Psychotic fantasy is, after all, the forte of the far left.

Dear Editor,
    I know that everybody's concentrating on Dick Cheney's having shot a grown adult after mistaking him for a quail, but I'm having trouble getting past the fact that he was hunting without the right license. His office said that the check for $7 (that it would cost) is in the mail.
    I think it's pretty ludicrous to go out and shoot defenseless little birds with shotguns unless you're starving, but if I or anybody reading this got caught hunting quail without a stamp, we'd be fined. Especially if the authorities found out after I'd shot somebody. Period. How is this not a big deal? It's like being pulled over for speeding while accidentally mowing over some pedestrian and assuming you can get off by offering to circle back and go slow next time. It's a little example, but it is yet another example of a smug, arrogant group of people who consider themselves above the law, not to mention decency or morality.

Dear Editor,
    Just read Vance McDonald's stirring diatribe against the "neo-leftist utopian Democratic Party" [“Postmarks,” Feb. 17] and I must say ... his flair for the dramatic is only matched by those that are manifested in the actions of the very Islamist extremists he wants to destroy. And before I am verbally tarred and feathered as a "coward" and branded a neo-leftist, I happen to agree with the core of Mr. McDonalds' argument. The rotten shell that envelopes that core though is that it's consistent with the administration's adherence to the script. No one argues with the fact that the terrorists struck us and we had to retaliate. I agree that we had to drive the Taliban out of Afghanistan, but that's where it should have stayed. Fact of the matter is that Saddam Hussein was bad for business. All of that nonsense with the WMD was just part of the script that was written by the neocons way before Bush took office. It's those same neoconservative hacks that have seriously damaged this country's foreign policy. Their short-term greed for spoils of war on the cheap has been grossly mismanaged. One wonders how it is that individuals that have been at the highest levels of government have such a shortsighted grasp on geopolitics. We might have rid Iraq of Saddam, but we removed a counterpoint to Iran, who the administration has made the pre-eminent power in the Persian Gulf. They have WMD and they are on the verge of unlocking the power of the ultimate WMD. All under George W.'s watch! It's time for the administration's apologists to face the truth and stop being blinded by partisan ideology.

Dear Editor,
    I am writing to say that I truly appreciate the artwork on the Jan. 27 cover [“The New Texas Family Planning,” News]. Having grown up in the Bible Belt, I am all too familiar with the powers that be taking the tactic of handing out Bibles instead of birth control or funding reproductive health (which means abortion to them instead of pap smear), and I thought that your cover art articulated that state of affairs perfectly. It was really a photographed political cartoon.
    As for your detractors, since you're not answering them, I'll take a shot at it for you. The point of the Bible's location is not that the Bible is against her crotch, the point is that it's been issued by the state to "protect" her vagina from pregnancy (well, sex really), medical care, and potentially abortion by blocking access in lieu of funding actual health care. It's not sexual, and its location is not meant as an insult to the contents of the book – it's an illustration as to how the book is being used to block boners and speculums. Additionally, the woman's face is not shown because this is not one woman's story, it is every woman's story. And finally, yes, if another religion was the vastly prevailing religion in this region practicing these identical politics, then the book that they thump while making up these policies would have been there instead of the Bible.
    As to if this should have been the cover or an inside illustration or not is another matter. To me, this is one of the most eloquently stated political art pieces I have ever seen, and after a lifetime of having life filtered for me by the people who really object to images like that, I think that that was the best cover ever, and I'm very glad that you ran it.