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 [email protected]. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Editor,
    Illegal war, illegal torture, and now, illegal wiretaps. Bush, Cheney, and all the usual suspects tell us that the president can do it all. So, how surprised will everyone be when the 2006 election is 1) suspended; 2) canceled; or 3) stolen? After all, we've seen them break any law they want without consequences.
    It's time to quit complaining and start acting before it's too late. Get in the streets with the World Can't Wait movement in January. If you rely on voting them out next time around, you may be disappointed.
    It's not who votes that makes the difference. It's who counts the votes.

Dear Editor,
    Closed-door meetings where note-taking is not allowed; a president who dismisses the checks and balances of a democratic nation; makes decisions on information only he is privileged to know; a war sold to the American public on manipulated information; Homeland Security knows your library preferences. President George W. Bush has proved to be a political leader able to manipulate the political system in this democracy to obtain almost autocratic power. Like Hitler, Bush is a leader bored by administrative details, which opens the way for fanatical and often corrupt subordinates.
    Now the American public is being spied on without knowledge or authorization from the judicial system, an integral part of this government's checks and balances. Bush claims his authority as president gives him permission to override the protection our founding fathers fought for and Americans die for. Behind a facade of legality, just like the Nazis, Bush has dismantled the established protections of law.
    Bush has become a true demagogue who has gained power through impassioned public appeals to the emotions, fears, and prejudices of the American people. We invade and conquer foreign lands, proliferate Bush's democracy to Third World nations; advancing his occupation while consolidating power while scapegoating dissenters as unpatriotic and terrorist sympathizers, the object of irrational hostility.
    Sound familiar?

Dear Editor,
    Re: Leoda Anderson's letter [“Postmarks,” Dec. 9]: We're tired of you shortsighted bigots "redefining new ... social situations.” Let's stick with the old constitutional rights of all U.S. citizens. Constitutional rights are not subject to majority rule. Two foxes and a hen don't get to decide what to have for dinner. Your comparing apples to oranges to gay marriage is comparing apples to oranges and totally bigoted. Marriage is already defined as "A union between two people who are committed in a loving relationship as spouses.” And we'll stick with the Constitution not your fascism and call ourselves spouses and married, not your suggested "matches." "Tim and Jim" pay taxes, for your brats education I might add, and can't even protect each other as spouses from haters like you. You don't own the word marriage or the sanctity of anything, period. Have a gay holiday Leoda.

Dear Editor,
    Are you a tin-hat loony, like Alex Jones? Take the following quiz, based on statements made by Alex on his ACTV/PACT show. Read each statement carefully, then count up the total number with which you agree:
   The ruling elite of the world worship Moloch.
   The secret rulers of the world can live forever.
   The elite have openly announced that they want to kill 80% of us.
   Vicente Fox can morph into a green devil. (Alex says he saw him do it. Honest.)
   The Communist Chinese Army has taken over the Massachusetts Port Authority.
   There are live AIDS viruses in the corn.
   Illegal immigration is a government plot.
   The counterculture is a government plot.
   Vaccines are a government plot.
   Thumb scanning is a government plot.
   Environmentalism is a government plot.
   The National Seatbelt Initiative is a government plot.
   Feminism is a government plot.
   Toll roads are a government plot.
   Antidepressants are a government plot.
   All domestic terror attacks are government plots.
   Arnold Schwarzenegger is part of an Austrian plot to take over America.
   Skull & Bones is part of an English plot to take over America.
   The United Nations is part of a (very slow) plot to take over America.
   Children's cartoons are part of a government plot to brainwash us.
   Gloria Steinem is a CIA agent.
   Michael Moore is a CIA agent.
   Noam Chomsky is a CIA agent.
   People have tattoos saying "Don't Kill Me" in Holland.
   The government keeps "giant, honeycombed hives full of toddlers drugged on lithium."
    Tally up how many answers you marked as "true." The result tells you how crazy you are.
   1-5: You forgot to take your meds.
   6-10: You'll believe any old sh*t.
   11-15: You're a "Patriot" – i.e., an angry white guy with an IQ in the mid-80s.
   16-20: Take your meds.
   21-25: You are Alex Jones.

Dear Editor,
    Thank you for Amy Smith's great article on AMD's proposed move of thousands of employees out of East Austin and into the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Watershed [“Back to the Trenches,” News, Dec. 16]. To our knowledge, no company has ever proposed to abandon East Austin and relocate in our most fragile watershed. This controversy will only intensify in the months ahead.
    We are working with many community groups to gather enough signatures to place on the May ballot two proposed charter amendments (changes to Austin's constitution). The Save Our Springs charter amendment would – if approved by voters – specifically ask AMD and other major employers not to locate in the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Watershed, among other measures to protect Barton Springs.
    The Open Government Online charter amendment would – if approved by voters – put City Council members' calendars online, so the public can see whom they are spending their time with, along with other measures to improve transparency at City Hall for all citizens to see.
    Mayor Wynn was meeting privately with AMD about their scheme months before the public knew of AMD's intentions. If the Open Government Online charter amendment had been in place, the public would have known when the mayor's meeting with CEO Hector Ruiz was scheduled.
    Rather than alerting and enlisting the entire community to deter AMD from a disastrous decision to urbanize the fragile Barton Springs Watershed, Wynn agreed to keep AMD's plans secret. With a smidgen of public leadership, AMD would have already changed course and narrowed their search to the Desired Development Zone, as so many tech companies have done successfully, most recently downtown-bound Silicon Labs.
    Read both of the proposed charter amendments at www.cleanwater-cleangovernment.org. You can also download the petitions and gather signatures to help get these needed amendments on the ballot in May.

Dear Editor,
    I know there is a taboo against understanding basic economics (abortion is sooo much more important), but does this have to extend to the top of Capital Metro [“Bus Negotiations Headed for Collision,” News, Dec. 23]? When I pay taxes to support them it is implied that they pay adequate wages. Why? Because of an economic concept called the multiplier effect. When Dell brings money from outside our area and spends it locally it will go round and round in the local economy generating activity. That multiplying factor is between 3x and 8x and is the subject of argument between economists. But this much is clear, as wages drop that multiplier goes down. Tax expenditures are midway in the chain and have a larger effect. The extra that Metro workers have to spend is the money that small businesses live from. This is basic high school economics. Was it dropped from the curriculum? Is the world so full of specialists and micromanaging accountants that we have forgotten how the whole system works? Why does this need a letter to the editor to even come into the discussion? Where is the union? This should be part of their interview. Gosh, this is embarrassing.

Dear Editor,
    Regarding the article “The Bloodthirsty Killers of Circle C” [News, Dec. 9], I think that Rachel Proctor May is a very talented writer, and I appreciate her well-balanced article about the free-roaming cat problem in Austin and my quest to educate folks on it. My only comment to the Chronicle is their choice of the letter to the editor that someone chose to publish in the printed edition.
    One writer suggests that it easier to "bell" a cat which is the biggest misconception [“Postmarks,” Dec. 16].
    Putting bells on cats doesn't work. Cats stalk slowly and often wait in ambush to catch their prey. There is no time for the bird to escape when it hears the bell, if it hears the bell. Birds and other wildlife do not associate bells with being stalked.
    The other was the Ph.D. who wrote a powerful letter, which was educational [“Postmarks Online,” Dec. 12] ... instead of publishing that, oh well I've got a lot of work ahead of me I can tell. Now I hope the Chronicle publishes this letter so people don't start thinking belling a cat works as a way to warn wildlife of danger!

Dear Editor,
    In response to John Trujillo's “Bell the Cat” ["Postmarks," Dec. 16]: I wish it were so simple. Unfortunately, belling does not stop cats' hunting. Wildlife groups in the U.S. cite several studies showing bells have no effect. A 2005 study in Britain by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, on the other hand, says bells may cut cat kills – but only by 35%. None of these studies have been large enough or thorough enough to be conclusive, but none suggests belling is a complete answer.
    Here are the problems with belling:
    1) Many cats learn how to avoid jingling their bells, especially at critical stalking points.
    2) Cats kill nestling and fledgling birds and baby animals who can't flee when alarmed.
    3) It's not clear that, in general, bells alarm wildlife – they may not link bell noises with danger, not having evolved with ringing predators. If they learn, they may not hear the bell tolling for them until it's too late.
    4) Belling has not been shown to affect cat breeding. Feral cats, many of whom have one or more domesticated but unaltered parent, tend to resist being belled. (They also resist being leashed, but that's another issue.)

Dear Chronicle,
    Seems as if your paper has been putting lots of effort into whistle-blowing and finger-wagging at the supposed wrongdoings of AMD and its CEO [“Back to the Trenches,” News, Dec. 16].
    But I have happened to notice that every week you run a quarter-page ad from Laboratory Computers, who, despite selling Intel systems, mainly promotes AMD products. The ad is a real eye-catcher for every red-blooded male in Austin who reads your publication. There is always some computer vixen in a very tight, short lab smock suggestively displaying computers and other hardware. This ad only mentions AMD computers that have really cool names like the Genius, the Monster, and creatures, oh my.
    This to me seems like a direct conflict of interest with your principles and stance. But then again, they are a paying advertiser. Utilizing this sort of logic I guess a dog turd wouldn't taste half bad to the editor of the Chronicle as long as it was wrapped up nicely in a couple of $100 bills. Bon appétit Louis.

   [Louis Black replies: The Chronicle has a long-standing policy that there is a solid wall separating editorial from advertising. Buying or not buying ads does not influence editorial decisions at all. We are not fooling ourselves and certainly not trying to fool our readers; what we do to stay in business is sell advertising. Regardless of the Chronicle's stated position in editorial, and within reason and the law, we'll sell an ad to whomever or whatever. It is very rare and only after the most careful consideration that we turn any ad down. This is almost never an easy decision to make. But whereas we wouldn't even consider making our staff follow editorial's lead, we certainly don't expect our readers are in anything resembling lockstep, so we certainly wouldn't put such a stricture on advertisers. When it comes to vixens and turds, it's always a pleasure to hear from someone reasonable.]

Dear Editor,
    I know some of the vets (notice I said some, not all, so if you're not in that group please don't take offense) here in Austin feel they are an elite group and they lobbied very hard in Travis County to make sure they aren't even required to offer animal registration. In Dallas and other Texas counties it is a given that if a veterinarian is allowed to practice in that market then that vet is required to shoulder some of the responsibility for the upkeep of that market, meaning the vets are required to register animals as a part of their business. In Austin they claim it isn't their job. Along with the privilege of practicing in our county should come the responsibility of enforcing registration. The store clerks don't work for the state comptroller's office, but they are required by law to collect sales tax. It is part of the responsibility/privilege of operating a store in the marketplace created by the citizens and government of Texas. It should be the same with registration and other related animal ordinances or laws such as the rabies vaccine. How selfish is it to want to reap the benefits of practicing in Travis County but not want to accept the responsibilities that go with it?

Dear Editor,
    When I learned about the naked calendar fundraiser for the Graham family I thought, what a great idea [“Naked,” Music, Sept. 23]. Many of my friends are musicians, I am a health-care professional, and everybody needs a calendar. I headed over to Waterloo and bought about a dozen or so. Being my usual overly efficient self, I went ahead and hung mine up at Jan. '06 right behind my Dec. '05. Not only is the photography amazing, but the “subject matter” is spectacular. I have only two things to say: 1) Is Guy Forsyth single?; and 2) it's gonna be Jan. 2006 at my house for a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time!

Dear Editor,
    Louis sure brought back some memories to me, although mine were the Bobby Seale riots in New Haven [“Page Two,” Dec. 16]. I was maybe 14 or 15 and my dad and his doctor friend brought me along to what was supposed to be a peaceful event, although they were prepared to help on the medical side. It was cool, with live bands in all the quads, a few right reverends speaking, everyone happy. Nothing happened until some rowdy guys started throwing fluorescent light tubes like javelins at the riot cops. Then we all got gassed.
    I learned a lot that night. Thanks for the memories, man. I liked what you wrote there.

Dear Editor,
    Here in Eugene, Ore., Texas bands of the Sixties are held in the highest esteem, and no band out of the vast truthful reservoir of Texas Sixties bands is lauded more than the 13th Floor Elevators. I've made sure the Elevators are played at the very least twice per two-hour program on KWVA 88.1FM Eugene, Ore., where I work. I can make sure of this because I play whatever I want and always play plenty of recordings by the Chessmen, the Briks, the Penthouse 5, and the Exotics, all from Dallas; Zachary Thaks Liberty Bell from Corpus; the Outcasts and Stoics from San Antonio; and Neal Ford and the Ramadas from Houston.
    Even with that heavy competition the Elevators not only get more airplay, they sound even greater and more powerful to me every time always. The history, the mystique, the feeling of Stacy Sutherland's super-charged steam-drill opening attack on the fast version of “Tried to Hide” has a complete thrillness to it all its own that I'm sure Elevator fans have no problem connecting with. Or the very first time I heard “Slip Inside This House” 20 years ago. At the very end of the song after Roky stops, Stacy starts this really smooth Jimmy Reed riff only sped up and so just leaped out at me and still does that I realized that's the only ending that could ever be heavy enough for the most amazing hypnotic intensity flow eight-minute song in music history, let alone Elevator folklore. It was then I realized only Stacy could do this almost impossible job, that is lead guitar for the 13th Floor Elevators. God bless you, Stacy.

Dear Editor,
    I attended a matinee screening of Brokeback Mountain on its first day of major release. I noted that Marjorie Baumgarten awarded it four stars, and I'm going to agree with that rating [Film Listings, Dec. 16]. Instead of the cinematic/genre comparisons she makes, I would simply invoke Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove in terms of great characters and story.
    Since Travis County has the distinction of having had the broad-mindedness to vote against the anti-gay marriage amendment being added to the state constitution, I would inform potential viewers that this movie should be an enjoyable affirmation of that viewpoint.
    As there have been Chronicle readers who have occasionally been offended by movies recommended herein, I would also present this precaution. As noted in your review, there is a scene in which their tent rocks; the sex is not too graphic and does not involve nudity. There is perhaps one scene in which the lovers kiss. The rest of their affection takes the shape of embraces and fistfights. The minor nudity contained in the movie is not full-frontal, and never in the context of a "love scene."
    Your reviewer writes the film moved her heart, and I'll admit I teared up and sniffled some during the conclusion, like a little girl.
    It is certainly worth the price of admission and the time.
    Here I will nominate my choice for the Academy Awards best movie of 2005, however: March of the Penguins.

Dear Editor,
    The passing of William Proxmire, bestower of the Golden Fleece Awards, is cause to note the passing of a rarity: a politician who actually put the public's business to the forefront. Exposing and fighting corruption and bent on stopping the squandering of the public's funds on moronic pork-barrel projects. (He would have loved the much-maligned Alaskan bridges – to nowhere.)
    Men like him have been replaced in today's world by hacks, yes-men, poltroons, and stealth-lobbyists whose loyalty is to their campaign donors only ... guys like Tom DeLay and Ted Stephens.
    Proxmire made a lot of enemies, including many in his own party, but that is the mark of an icon, a maverick, who always did the right thing.
    In his twilight, he left office after believing he correctly had Alzheimer's disease. He felt if he couldn't be 100%, he was letting down his constituency. (Proxmire at 10% of his mental faculties probably had much more going on upstairs than today's heads of mush in the electorate.)
    I close, wishing we had more William Proxmires in our government.
    We need them sorely.

Well, well, well,
    Saw Bush so pleased with himself about the election in Iraq (like he was saying, "See, told you so").
    Well, what he told us, so that he could send our children to war, was that Iraq and Saddam were going to wipe us off the face of the earth with their WMD. He never said we are going to send your children to die so that the Iraqis can vote. Why do our children have to die so that the Iraqis can vote?
    Gee – if the Iraqis wanted to vote that bad, why didn't millions of them (the millions who voted yesterday) rise up and take out Saddam themselves?
    Isn't everyone just completely sick at heart that our young men and women have died so that citizens of another country can vote (especially ironic since most Americans don't give a whit about voting themselves).
    Just downright unbelievable.

Dear Editor,
    Like Louis Black, I also count myself as a Neil Young fan of more than 30 years [“Page Two,” Dec. 16]. Unlike Mr. Black, I figured out a long time ago that Stephen Stills is the composer of "For What It's Worth,” not Neil Young. Oh, by the way, Neil Young's first solo album is not called "The Loner.” It is called Neil Young. The second track is a song named "The Loner"; however, it is not the title track.
    Other than being full of major errors, great column.

   [Louis Black responds: Sorry, this was an error of astonishing obliviousness. It never crossed my mind that everyone wouldn't know that "For What It's Worth" was written by Stephen Stills, in the same way I would never think to cite "Imagine" as a John Lennon song or "Like a Rolling Stone" as Dylan's. The way my original was edited made this more difficult to understand, but even my original was obscure and never specifically says it's a Stephen Stills' song. At the end of talking about the song, as a transition to Young, I wrote: "Even then the music that had most struck me from the Springfield has been more Neil Young’s. There was something almost prophetically observational in his work that seems rooted in timeless visions. I wasn’t that interested in Stills." As to Young's first album, I've called it The Loner since I first bought it. Sorry.]

Dear Editor,
    Maybe you should check your facts about Neil Young's first album [“Page Two,” Dec. 16]. The Loner? That was a song on it. And maybe mention that Stephen Stills wrote "For What It's Worth.”

Dear Editor,
    This is in regards to the guy who felt it necessary to save our heritage by saving English [“Postmarks Online,” Dec. 7]. First of all, our heritage is a combination of immigrants coming to America, forming a "melting pot" and our American English was born. There is nothing unique about it except for the fact we stole it from the English and changed it up as we saw fit. Secondly, did you know that Hispanics will be the majority in the country by 2050? Start taking your Spanish lessons now. I promise a little Spanish won't hurt our heritage.

Dear Editor,
    Brokeback Mountain has morphed into much more than just a movie [Film Listings, Dec. 16]. Newspaper/magazine, TV coverage, Web sites, blogs, etc., have brought it into the national debate on gay civil rights. While the details differ for each of us, the film's story also gives witness to our lives, emotions, and obstacles still to be faced and overcome.
    For me it all began in a small Texas town, Killeen, 1960. We were both 16 and in high school. He was later elected senior class president and captain of the football team. I was shy and read a lot. With no examples to follow, we relied on our instincts, making it up as we went along.
    He went off to college and even got engaged to our hometown cheerleader. Two months before his 20th birthday he died in a car crash en route to NTSU. As for myself, I've become like the Fisher King, marked by “the wound that never heals.”
    Over the past four decades I've noted just a paltry change in society's and the law's homophobia. The recent passage of Proposition 2, the latest “Nuremberg Law,” continues to reinforce the position of gays as second-class citizens. Though Travis was the only county out of 254 to vote down the constitutional amendment against gay marriage, there are issues here as well. Recent court trials for physical assaults and even murder serve as constant reminders that being gay puts our lives at added risk.
    I doubt that the movie will by itself bring about any significant positive change in gay human rights. But then I appreciate and applaud Brokeback Mountain for its core portrayal of two men in love (romantic and sexual) against all odds.

Dear Editor:
    I encourage readers to support the McCain revision banning torture in all circumstances because:
    1) Information gained from torture is unreliable. A person subjected to torture will admit to anything. Consider the Soviet gulags, where innocent people were tortured then executed for falsely confessed crimes.
    2) Torture is simply un-American. America stands for many things: life, liberty, freedom. However, America's attempts to justify torture by bending well-established laws, creating political "no-man's land" for enemy combatants, and sending prisoners to be tortured in secret prisons by third-party countries (i.e., Poland), which undermines claims that we are fighting for moral high ground. How can we fight for freedom and democracy while actively justifying the use of torture?
    3) America's justification of torture will result in the widespread torture of Americans. Undermining Geneva Convention agreements that ban torture effectively nullifies these agreements. When someone is tortured, these treaties appear outdated. Soon they will no longer protect anyone. If it's OK for America to torture individuals then what prevents other governments, countries, or organizations from torturing Americans?
    4) Sen. John McCain has a profound understanding of the need for banning torture. Sen. John McCain – tortured in Vietcong camps – understands the utter futility of torture from a personal and visceral perspective:
    "Every one of us – every single one of us – knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or approving such mistreatment of them. That faith was indispensable not only to our survival, but to our attempts to return home with honor. For without our honor, our homecoming would have had little value to us" – John McCain ("Torture's Terrible Toll," Newsweek, Nov. 21, 2005).

Dear Editor,
    Re: Austin City Council Minutemen resolution: If the council feels compelled to weigh in on this issue that does not directly involve the city, why not revise the wording of the resolution below to express the council's opposition to the harassment of illegal immigrants by any individual or group? The current wording requires that any Minutemen activity (even peaceful protests that do not involve any contact with immigrants) be reported to the city manager. That sounds a lot like the monitoring of communists under McCarthy.
    I support an earned citizenship program to streamline immigration and confer citizenship on immigrants who hold a steady job and do not otherwise violate the law, particularly those who take steps like attempting to learn English and civics. At the same time, we should deport illegal immigrants who commit crimes. However, the majority of immigrants are here to work, so we need to focus on integrating immigrants so they become Americans, not just workers.
    In Germany, you are not considered German if you are not German by ancestry – the genius of America is being American is a state of mind, not an ethnicity. Plus, integration certainly does not mean losing your native culture, but rather contributing its richness to the American tapestry. Continuing our historic integrationist approach that is quite unique among even Western nations will enable us to avoid the problems Europe is now experiencing.
    I also believe the law permits people living on the border and elsewhere to use reasonable force to protect their property from intruders regardless of their citizenship status. I think we can all agree that illegal immigrants should not be subjected to the use of force or the threat of the use of force that is not authorized by law or goes beyond that authorized by law. Why not focus the resolution on that rather than on a specific group that engages in a wide range of activities, many of which are probably protected by the First Amendment? Better yet, why not go beyond this narrow issue and examine what the city can do to promote integration.

Dear Editor,
    I was just wondering, maybe someone can help. Exactly what is the City Council going to do when absolutely every square inch of Austin and all the surrounding communities and real estate are covered in stores and malls and gas stations? Every day we see a new area of "wild" land being bulldozed for shopping malls. Shit, look at the Backyard, thank god all those pesky trees were cut down and all those fields were paved over so yuppies could buy things. Tell you what, let's just get it over with, pave everything, put up all kinds of bullshit stores so people can buy shit, spend money, and generate taxes for the city so they can buy votes by doling out all these tax revenues. Shit, a Lowe's on every block! That's what we need! Screw Maria's Taco Xpress and the people who live in the trailer park behind it, we need a new drug store! Why? I mean, are we out of drug stores, are people waiting for hours in line for their medication? Nope ... a new drug store generates more taxes. I'd like to see some candidates for City Council who are not dead-set on turning Austin into a shit hole like Houston or Dallas. And for the people who want to see Austin turn into a big shitty, how about you move to Houston or Dallas and leave us the hell alone?

Dear Editor,
    Last year for New Year's Eve, I was sitting in my home by myself, dispassionately reading a book I'd already read, and drinking sparkling apple cider. After midnight passed, I looked around and said, "No matter what it is next year, I want to be doing something different." This is a message for people who, like me last year, thought that the holidays are for couples and families: make up your mind to do something different. Volunteer. Join a networking group. Throw your own holiday shindig. Whatever you do, don't spend the time thinking about what you don't have at the moment. Get out of your head, and into your life, and have as busy a holiday season as you want. Trust me, it's worth it. Happy Holidays!

Dear Editor,
    Just finished reading Margaret Moser's excellent review of the Rhino boxed set Girl Group Sounds [“I'd Much Rather Be With the Girls,” Music, Dec. 9]. What a treasure this lady is. Please don't ever let her slip away from the Chronicle.

Dear Editor,
    I just wanted to say that I read the article on the film festival over at Reagan High School and I viewed all of the films [“Reagan Film Fest,” News, Nov. 25]. The kids worked really hard on them. I really liked “Trapped in the Closet.” It was really cute and very funny. But my favorite of course is my daughter's, Miss Tazea I. Dukes. Thank you for everything that you did for those kids, especially my baby.
    Thank you.

Dear Editor,
    Today, as the U.S. Senate, that bastion of the gullible and the culpable, votes to extend the USA PATRIOT Act, I'm thinking about spin. The right wing has gotten so adept at Orwellian naming schemes, I think maybe it's time some of the rest of us got into the act.
    After all, lots of people seem to believe that the PATRIOT Act is about being anti-terrorist, which is defined as patriotic. In actuality, of course, it's about denial of constitutional rights, which is very unpatriotic.
    Then there's the Clear Skies Initiative, which everyone should understand is designed to gut the Clean Air Act.
    So, I've come up with an idea for a comprehensive national sex education course, to be taught in every high school in the country. I'm calling it "Pro-Creationism.”
    Hey, if the "fundies" are dumb enough to swallow the PATRIOT Act.

Dear Chronicle,
    If there is to be no religion or spiritual practices in public schools, why are some teachers being permitted to teach children, including kindergartners, yoga and meditation techniques such as the lotus/chi position, and even chanting "om”? Surely if Christian symbols and prayer have no place in the schools, then neither do these Eastern and new age practices. Parents need to know just what is going on their children's classrooms here in Austin.

Dear Chronicle,
    A while back, Mayor Wynn asked the citizens of Austin for suggestions on how to honor Lance Armstrong for his incredible seven wins in the Tour de France. I would like to make the obvious suggestion: Finish building the Lance Armstrong Bikeway!
    Construction of the bikeway began years ago when "they" put in curb cuts and a sidewalk connecting Fourth Street under I-35 for cyclists; however, "they" left a dangerous situation. Every time I cross there, I worry as I dart across the busy access road that I'll crash in front of a speeding motorist after getting my bike tire caught in the railroad tracks. Or maybe I won't see a car coming because of the parked cars on the access road. Or maybe I'll fall in one of the many potholes on Fourth Street and break my face.
    To properly honor Lance, and to serve the hundreds of folks who use this bike corridor each day, the Fourth Street crossing needs flashing lights to warn motorists of bike/ped traffic, the potholes need to be fixed, parking needs to be eliminated on the access road, and something (what, I don't know) needs to be done about those railroad track traps.