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,
    After just enjoying a wonderful visit from our Austin relatives, a discussion ensued concerning our belief in California that Texas makes embarrassing choices that are difficult to explain to others.
    While on a recent trip to Germany, I was "grilled" as to why more guns in the hands of citizens makes a world with too many guns safer, referring to the Texas law allowing such. I had no answer, as there is no logic to the solution.
    I was also asked why Texas executes more people than all other states combined. As the death penalty is illegal in the European Union, this solution to crime is considered barbaric to them and most modern, first world nations.
    Now I read that the Texas State Board of Education has given approval to have Bible classes in public schools, despite warnings about the constitutionality of this move.
    Don't mess with Texas? Someone needs to straighten "y'all" out and bring you into the 21st century!

Hey Louis,
    I just wanted to throw out a sort of "thank you" for two recent “Page Two” articles entitled "Unreasonably Reasonable” [June 27] and this week's "Critical Grasp” [July 18]. Personal political opinions aside, it was refreshing and unexpected to see someone put so clearly the faults in this virtual tug-of-war online between conspiracy-leaning patriotic freedom fighters and this crew of globalist whatnot and shadow government business. If "they" are really watching "us" at all times, then wouldn't they see the surge of attention and noise being made by the patriot radio/forum crowd, and try to counterattack in some way?
    If two people don't like each other at a crowded party, fine, but if they come to the point of breaking out into a fistfight, they force the bystanders, everyone else around, to state their view of the whole issue. This is the point of view I have not seen spoken for enough, in the middle of this game of bottom lines and true intentions. This bickering has gotten to the point where it pops into your daily life even when you try to avoid it. When something "secret" has become common knowledge, it tends to have a habit of canceling itself out. This is a good time for good journalists to do their thing and state the simple problem at the source of the friction. The only other time I was blown away by such local chiming-in of common decency was on KLBJ's Dudley and Bob Show when they asked Alex Jones how many kids he had, and even got him to say on radio for once that, "the world is still a beautiful place."
    So basically what I'm saying is, it is good to hear a blurb from the modest, well-documented, undeniable bottom line from time to time.

Dear Editor,
    Re: “Can the Bands Play On?” [News, July 18]: Austin's music crisis was created because of City Council decisions. The mayor's Live Music Task Force is a textbook case of government creating a problem, then marketing itself as the solution.
    The City Council, with Mayor Will Wynn as spearhead, is in the tank for the Smart Growth program, which mandates high-density Downtown dwellings, and only latterly discovers that this means crowding out low-rent but high-quality clubs where the Austin music scene used to flourish. Steamboat memories, anyone? Vulcan Gas Company? Club Foot? Lucy's Retired Surfer's Bar? Soon: La Zona Rosa? Even the City Council's shiny new multimillion -dollar City Hall overlooks the lamented ghost of Liberty Lunch.
    The City Council started charging for formerly free surface parking under I-35, and created a further shortage of on-street parking with their vertical mixed-use retail shopping and condos, with associated pay-only parking lots. I dread going Downtown now – and I know I'm not the only one – because parking is such a nightmare.
    The council passed a no-smoking ordinance which (surprise!) drove patrons outside and when the music followed the patrons, the council passed a noise ordinance so onerous that I, for one, have lost interest in seeing a particular favorite band once they turn down enough to avoid a ticket.
    And after all this and more, Mayor Wynn has the (cough) cojones to create a Live Music Task Force to study – oh dear, what can the matter be? – the live music situation in Austin, and determine how the city can "help" – with tax dollars, of course.
    For good measure, the LMTF then grows their own set and lobbies to spend my tax dollars on an advertising campaign to persuade me that Austin's ailing music scene is my fault for not going out to clubs enough. For shame.

Dear Editor,
    Back in February I had a letter printed titled "What's Wrong With the System?” [“Postmarks,” Feb. 15]. In it I stated: "Dude! How is it possible that one person in the market can drive the price of oil to $100 per barrel? Sounds like an oil company executive move to me. … Isn't there some sort of safety protocol in place to prevent this sort of catastrophe from happening? Maybe put a maximum of stock being unloaded or purchased on the market by an individual or corporation in a single day. It seems to me that the futures market was in place so these things wouldn't happen."
    Well, today Washington heard my plea and the law passed unanimously!
    In Washington, the Senate voted 94-0 to move ahead with a plan that would require the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to set limits on trading in oil markets by certain large investors.

Dear Editor,
    I have a question for all of you people with "Costs Too Much, Does Too Little" still fading away next to the big black "W" on your Suburbans' bumpers: With gas hovering around $4 a gallon like a fly around a corpse, do you still think you're clever? You posers with "Kill Rail" stickers on your Hummers: How much does it cost these days to fill up those nobody-will-ever-guess-you're-homosexual-mobiles?
    Just wonderin'.

Dear Editor,
    I wanted to write to you in regards to two stories I have read recently in The Austin Chronicle [“Rehabilitation or Torture?” News, May 23, and “Will 'SAFE-P' and TDCJ Be Held Accountable?” News, July 18]. I am happy to see people such as your writer Patricia J. Ruland take notice of such a horrid and widespread problem of abuse. The two pieces were written about SAFPFs and the controversy surrounding the use of methods within this program. Having been subjected to identical tortures described in her first piece when I was a teenager, I must say I was disturbed to read about its implementation inside a women's prison in Texas.
    Though I am upset to read that the modality mentioned in the piece is still being perpetuated, I am more appreciative that your organization is taking action to expose the truth, which is what I've always thought the basic tenet of journalism and media is supposed to be. Thank you for renewing my confidence in media by supporting writers who cover complicated subjects so fraught with corruption. Patricia Ruland has written an in-depth review of this SAFPF, issue which indicates that she is professional as well as versed in critical thinking.

Dear Editor,
    Thank you for your articles in last week’s Chronicle (“Can the Bands Play On?” and “Rockin’ Solutions: A Four-Piece Combo”) [News, July 18], which I read in happy disbelief. As a working musician and recent transplant from New York City – where artists are increasingly getting priced out – I was thrilled to get confirmation from Mayor Will Wynn and the Live Music Task Force that I’d moved to a place where live music is valued for what it is: a vital element of any thriving city and one of the driving forces behind the recent population and economic boom here. I moved here because of two of Austin’s unique qualities: the heartfelt appreciation of audiences for live music I’ve seen in every Austin venue and the fact that I could afford to live here comfortably when I’m not on tour.
    A few nights ago at the Wilson Street Cottages (aka Hillbilly Heights) in South Austin, a group of musicians, producers, and friends gathered around a slow-roasting brisket to share songs and worries, stargaze, and wonder where we will each move if forced to leave when the cottages are torn down – as the landlord has notified us they will be sometime after September of this year so that condos can be built. What a shame it would be to lose this South Austin landmark and the community that goes with it: the Wilson Street Cottages have housed musicians since the Seventies, providing a cheap roof for the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Gourds, Carolyn Wonderland, and others while they kept Austin rocking. Current residents include Scrappy Jud Newcomb, Walter Tragert, Charlie Faye, myself, and others. (I’ve personally lived in several cities and traveled around the world, and I’ve never been as inspired by my surroundings or felt as welcome as I do living here surrounded by such talented neighbors.)
    But the buildings are in disrepair – built in the Forties for returning GIs – and could use some serious fixing. So given the choice between putting money into a low-rent property and razing it to make way for condos, the owner’s decision is understandable, but it still leaves the musicians in a real bind, and this is just one example of this kind of thing. As Austin continues to grow and expand, what are its options for the Wilson Street Cottages?
    I’m glad to be living where this discussion is alive and well. Thanks Austin!

Dear Editor,
    I read the article by Katherine Gregor on the Austin music scene [“Can the Bands Play On?” News, July 18]. The article does not address how musicians and venues can help themselves. As a live-music fan, I have found that most musicians in this town aren't worth paying to see, and most music venues aren't worth visiting.
    Musicians need to analyze what they are doing and ask themselves some tough questions. Are we writing the best songs we can? How do we really sound? How good is our show? Why should people pay to see us?
    There are many successful bands from Austin that play original music and make money in town and on the road. The local press often ignores them, but they exist. Aspiring musicians should study the habits of successful bands. Venue owners should study the habits of successful clubs.
    Most of the so-called live-music venues in this town have dismal PA systems. Shouldn’t this be the venue’s primary investment? This includes sound engineers. The art of being a sound engineer is a dying one. Venues also need to make sure that their stages and light shows are as good as they can possibly be and that shows run in a professional manner.
    Are you a musician who wants to be paid? Put out a great-sounding recording. Work hard to promote your band. Does a venue sound bad? Don't play there. Does the venue not have a cover charge or a payment system that makes sense? Don't play there. The stage is no place for rehearsal. Don't expect me to pay to see it. You only have your music. Present it in the best light possible. Don't count on anyone to help you but you. Give me something that I can't wait to spend my hard-earned money on. I will pay.

Dear Editor,
    Re: “Can the Bands Play On?” [News, July 18]: How about more bus routes and later running times into "entertainment districts"? A citizen will then be free (ahem …) to get Downtown, forget about parking, rock out, drink, and get home safely, all for the cost of a bus ticket and maybe a transfer. As a side note – I really dislike that some buses stop at every block. It wastes time, makes people less fit (and this is a fit city), and creates dangerous situations where car operators feel the need (myself included) to "get around the bus" because he knows he'll only get stuck at the next block or red light, thereby missing the first five minutes of his favorite band, which is, as of today – the Blasé Faire.

Dear Editor,
    Austin Enchanted Forest is a beautiful piece of commercially zoned land that its owner has generously opened to offer as a venue for some of Austin's most creative folks to share their talents. It has been home to the Halloween haunted trail, chili cook-offs, and live music performances.
    Apparently, a very small group of people have decided that they do not like the Enchanted Forest as a venue and have adopted a policy of complaining every time the gates open.
    Apparently, the city has chosen to shut down the forest as an event venue in spite of the owner's good-faith efforts to comply with city ordinances. The closing or restriction of this very special venue will be a loss both culturally and economically to the Austin community.
    I am writing to voice my concern over this matter and to request that everything possible be done to keep the Austin Enchanted Forest open and allow it to function as an event venue.
    Thank you for your time.

Dear Sirs,
    There were errors regarding nurse midwives in your "Naked City" [News] column of July 18, 2008. Your report implied that there have not been midwives with delivery privileges in Austin-area hospitals since 2002. That is not correct. The UTMB-Austin Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology has had at least one certified nurse midwife on our faculty for several years. There have been midwife deliveries at University Medical Center at Brackenridge since 2004. Our UTMB-Austin faculty and the administration at UMCB support the practice of midwifery by CNMs. Lobbying hospital administration was not necessary to make this happen; policies to allow this were already in place. Please correct these errors in your report. Thank you.

   [Amy Smith responds: I apologize for stating midwives do not have delivery privileges at local hospitals, such as University Medical Center at Brackenridge. That was incorrect. I should have been more specific in noting that St. David's North Austin Medical Center has distinguished itself from other medical facilities with a groundbreaking new hospital-based midwifery program that follows the traditional Midwives Model of Care. No other hospital in Austin offers such a collaborative, empowering service to expectant mothers.]

Dear Editor,
    Re: “Hard Back: Dizzee Rascal, from the manor to America” [Music, July 18]: Chase Hoffberger attributes Dizzee's sophomore effort, Showdown (2004), to being a joint release between XL and Matador. This is incorrect. Matador licensed Dizzee's debut album, Boy in da Corner, from XL several months earlier. That's the only album of Dizzee's we've been involved with.
    Later in Hoffberger's intro, the writer says of Dizzee, "his move to the Definitive Jux label, much larger than Matador and known for turning out a steady stream of alternative hip-hop, forced his creative hand."
    Again, this is incorrect. Dizzee didn't move from Matador to Def Jux. XL licensed Maths + English to the latter. While many of us at Matador remain steadfast fans of El-P's fine label, Hoffberger would surely struggle to explain how Def Jux is by any measure a "much larger" label. I mean no disrespect to Def Jux in any the slightest, but I do not understand how selling fewer records, having fewer releases and a smaller artist roster would make an imprint "larger" than Matador.
    Boy in da Corner remains the top-selling Dizzee Rascal album to date in the United States. In fact, Matador has sold twice as many copies of said title as Dizzee's subsequent two albums have totaled for two other labels combined.

Dearest Editor,
    Re: "Building the Netroots Nation" [News, July 11]: We should not only be concerned about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act's actions of telecom immunity … but also concern ourselves with the threat that Big Telecom poses to the open Internet we are all a part of.
    The Internet was built so that the power and functionality of it is left in the hands of us, its end users. We are at the edges of the network, with Internet service providers selling us a connection to the Internet through the use of their infrastructure.
    Since a large investment in the physical layer of the Internet was required by the telecom companies, they feel as though applications-layer companies such as Google, eBay, and Amazon should pay them for the physical connection to the Internet they provide their customers, who create revenue for services like Amazon.
    While telecom companies deserve to seek return from their investment, they are mistaken in placing the primary functionality of the Internet in the physical layer they own, as opposed to the applications and services layer we all benefit from. A telephone call costs the same regardless if you are discussing the weather or securing a $5 billion business merger. Telephone companies are not allowed to extract profit from the business deals you secure over the phone lines they invested in – they are only allowed to seek profit with a neutral subscription fee.
    Big Telecom companies are seeking to turn every online communication into a transaction for profit. If Big Telecom companies are able to use their infrastructure to levy fees from applications providers, the architecture of the Internet as well as user choice would be harmed. Fees on applications providers would hinder progress on the Internet by making it much more difficult for small players to create a service that is valuable to society. Applications developers’ inability to pay the large “visibility fee” required to be seen on the Big Telecom’s network would slow innovation and squash consumer choice.
    The Internet is affected with the public interest and should thus be subjected to minimally intrusive government regulation in order to maintain its position as an open, neutral platform. Telecom companies shouldn’t be allowed to decide for consumers what is viewable on the Internet – it should be up to the public to decide what works best for them.

Dear Editor,
    Re: “Can the Bands Play On?” [News, July 18]: The Live Music Capital of the World is only a phrase. Let's not get carried away. That being said, Austin music isn't going anywhere. It's true Austin has changed, and will continue to change … and a musician will either adapt, or in time get a tidy job at a computer company.
    Will Wynn and his buddy like to get pictures taken, and that's lovely. But save the photo op for something that needs real attention. And instead of sending a donation to some bullshit website, music fans should show some cash love to any working band they see performing. The musicians will love it more than an online donation to someone else.
    For the next generation of Austin musicians, I sincerely believe things are better than they have ever been. An artist can record, produce, book tours … all on their own. Any musician who puts in the time will be able to stay afloat in this city no matter what changes. With thousands of people moving to this city, there will continue to be demand for music. By the way, Austin can be affordable if you look hard enough. (You won't get a place Downtown but you can survive.)
    This town has everything for musicians! Musicians' union (they do go to bat for you), a guitar society, CD duplication houses, studio spaces, symphonic ensembles, luthiers, the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, the SIMS Foundation, musical therapy, etc. Austin has the best of many worlds. As for venues … I seem to recall a list of several thousand bands performing here in the spring, so there's a stage here and there. Did Run-DMC ever ask Ed Koch to step in and help the rappers when times got hard? Did the Misfits? Nah … they made their own records, then sold them out of the trunks of their cars, played anywhere and everywhere they could. In the end, they made history.
    In closing, “I was obliged to be industrious, and whoever else is equally industrious shall succeed, equally well.” – J.S. Bach

Dear Editor,
    In his July 18 column [“Page Two”], Louis Black makes the classic grammar school mistake of assuming that free speech means saying anything you damn well please. Sorry, but this is not correct: It has long been established that shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre is not acceptable free speech, and Stephen Moser's comments [“After a Fashion,” June 27] advocating running over bicyclists falls squarely into this category. The average soccer mom driving a minivan is in possession of a weapon far more deadly than anything I could possibly carry on a bicycle. They demonstrate this to us every year by killing or injuring more than 70,000 pedestrians (www.nhtsa.dot.gov/portal/nhtsa_static_file_downloader.jsp?file=/staticfiles/DOT/NHTSA/NCSA/Content/Reports/2008/810968.pdf).
    How many people died on 9/11? Motorists kill more than 10 times that many every single year – where's the outrage? A drunken driver in Arizona who ran over and killed a bicyclist laughs it all off and is told by her friends that "she should get a medal" (www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22818852), while in Texas the aforementioned soccer moms are gleefully running over bicyclists on the flimsiest of pretexts: www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/07/02/0702cyclist.html. Frequently, these incidents can't even remotely be called accidents: www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1216094102198390.xml&coll=7.
    Car-culture addicts like Black and Moser, perhaps driven to madness by high fuel prices, are looking for a scapegoat, and certainly bicyclists offer a ready and easily accessible outlet for their road rage. However understandable their anger might be, fomenting chaos and violence is not an example of free speech.

   [Louis Black responds: The letter writer makes the classic mistake of assuming that in defending speech I'm making some kind of classic free speech argument. If you really believe that shouting "fire" in a theatre and making a joke about running over bicyclists are exactly the same, it boggles my mind. With standards that strict, what are the topics we can and cannot use for jokes? How will we vet them?]

Dear Editor,
    Kudos to you all for your coverage on the Live Music Task Force, “Rockin' Solutions: A Four-Piece Combo” [News, July 18]. I am a local folk singer-songwriter, and an aspiring personal manager who majored in commercial music management at Austin Community College, a very prestigious program taught by music industry professionals. And yes, "musicians desperately need savvy, professional career management" in "the Live Music Capital of the World.”
    The last artist I courted to sign a management agreement, Star de Azlan, moved to Nashville and signed a huge record deal with Curb Records. My pet peeve is how recording studio owners have been completely reluctant to sign any work-for-hire agreements that insure songwriters retain 100% of their intellectual property rights in any digital content created in these studios. Especially when these studio operators can download an artist's material at the click of a button, and be selling this material on some music website out in cyberspace … and the artist doesn't even know that they are being ripped off!
    Musicians that I have counseled are completely clueless (i.e. lack of professionalism) when it comes to the U.S. Supreme Court case of Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid concerning artists' rights and ownership in the "termination and renewal provisions" of the Copyright Act!
    Many artists in Austin are having their intellectual property rights compromised due to ignorance of the copyright laws! Artists are unwittingly being ripped off by unscrupulous studio owners, and in turn, losing control of their intellectual property rights, as well as vast sums of money in the music business.
    ACC is churning out ethical personal managers like me, but getting an artist in this town to sign a management agreement is like trying to pull teeth from some studio owner. Musicians won't sign these contracts … and I won't do a bunch of free grunt work for them without this agreement in place.
    P.S. To all the dummy, know-nothing musicians in Austin, a booking agent books you gigs at 10% … a personal manager is a career counselor, and we generally earn a 20%-25% commission fee. You'd be surprised how many dumbass musicians in Austin don't know the differences between a booking agent and a personal manager! "I wonder if you'd think I'd flipped … if I went to Nashville … via Omaha!"

Dear Editor,
    Is Lady Bird Lake for sale? It is, according to the billboard permanently set in Lady Bird Lake. For months, the For Sale sign has been and is on the south side (of course) of the lake, about 20 yards east (of course) of the I-35 bridge. The only way to see the eyesore is either by rowing on the lake or cruising on the underutilized north and east sides of the hike-and-bike trail. The signposts seem to actually be set in the lake, but they could be on the shore. The billboard sitting in Lady Bird Lake is an advertisement for the condos above the cliff, where the hike-and-bike trail should be.
    The hike-and-bike trail around Lady Bird Lake is an Austin gem. However, it is like a freeway in a Third World country: great when you are on it, but it doesn’t go anywhere. Our beloved trail is nonexistent in a major section of the south side of the lake. This causes most of the trail use on the west side and virtually none on the larger, east side of Lady Bird Lake. Unfortunately, instead of getting a trail in that location, we got a For Sale sign.

Dear Editor,
    Re: “Will 'SAFE-P' and TDCJ Be Held Accountable?” [News, July 18]: These things did and still do happen at SAFPFs. My boyfriend was at Breckenridge in the Walker Sayle Unit and I witnessed a lot more abuse than this. Guards making them strip and leaving the door open so families could see them, just to name one. I would like to testify against this program, and know many other families that would like to see it stopped also.

Dear Editor,
    Wow. I thought I was sick enough of Stephen Moser's column, letting us know not about interesting fashion events around the city, but about whoever is throwing him a personal benefit to help him out with his cancer bills, every friggin' week. Now I learn that he and his sister can apparently go spend $500/night weekends at a spa [“After a Fashion,” July 18]. Gosh, Stephen, don't you think maybe if you have all that extra money left over after your treatment, you might consider giving the excess back to the community, to people who are actually needing the assistance, as apparently you don't anymore? I've known you cursorily for years, and until recently, I had never thought of you as that shallow. I hope I don't read of any more special benefits for you. Shame on you if I do. Shame.

Dear Editor,
    Re: "Letters @ 3am" [July 18]: It is factually and intellectually wrong to talk about the current price of oil and discount the role of commodities trading and their somewhat recent deregulation in the U.S.
    Liberals – of which I used to count myself one – are being vicious in their hatred of the "American" people and their automobile transit system. Watching said liberals being gleefully contrite in their "I told you so" attitude regarding this issue shows said liberals up for being a truly classless lot. They are cheering at themselves being ripped off so they can say, "See, see, our green agenda is correct." God, it is pathetic to watch.

Dear Editor,
    “My concern is that the world is going to end … [caused by] an epidemic of … whining, swamping the republic.” (Louis Black, “Page Two”) [July 18].
    “Quote of the Week” [July 18]: ‘We have … become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining … about … America in decline.’” (Phil Gramm, clueless economic adviser.)
    “Isn’t it ironic?” (Alanis Morissette, “Ironic.”)

Dear Editor,
    To my neighbors in the area of Rundberg, Rutland, and Parkfield. There is an Austin policeman in town who has magic powers. He can tell "about" how fast you are going just by visual estimation. This is, by the way, perfectly admissible in Austin Municipal Court, and you can and will be convicted solely on his say-so.
    How do I know? I was stopped for going 35 miles per hour through a stop sign, at least that is what it says on the ticket. But under oath in Municipal Court, the officer decided that, although he did not have his radar on, I was going "about eight (8) miles an hour." Which I was not. Maybe 1-2 miles per hour at the most, not quite a complete stop. I've seen hundreds of drivers do the same.
    So if you are said to be going "about 70 miles per hour" or "about 100 miles per hour” – but there is no proof and no radar – you will be convicted on the Austin police say-so. Nuff said?

   [Editor's note: Without getting on a high horse about it, we should note that even if "hundreds of drivers" have done the same thing, rolling a stop sign is illegal.]

Dear Editor,
    Re: "Can the Bands Play On?" [News, July 18]: What if we shifted the conversation about the noise level of music in Austin slightly? Music is sound. Sound is one of our senses. What if we talked about smell instead?
    If you move next door to a KFC, a bakery, or a meat-processing plant, what legal recourse do you have to prevent them from emitting odors that waft into your bedroom? While the smell of fresh-baked bread might be a welcoming odor as you stroll down the avenue, would you want to smell it in your sheets and towels daily?
    But would the police be out in their riot gear with their smell-o-meters ordering a cookie factory to stop making so many cookies per day so as not to offend nearby residents? Yet it seems perfectly acceptable for the police to do similar with nightclubs and music. Why? How about your neighbor who likes to grill steaks when you're a vegetarian? Do you have the right to make him stop because it offends you?
    People with noise issues who can afford to live in neighborhoods away from existing industrial, entertainment, and commercial zones should do so. People who can’t have traditionally had to put up with irritants. My grandparents lived in a tenement right by the overhead "L" train in New York when they came to America. They didn’t want to; they had to. If you cannot afford to live in a place where you won’t have your senses "assaulted" by existing businesses, then sadly that is life in the big city.
    Further, I believe that people who can afford better but don’t bother, nor care when purchasing a property to check at different times of day to see if there’s a noise problem for them, forfeit their rights to complain afterward. However, I do agree that if a venue appears in a traditionally residential area and blares music, it's a legitimate complaint.

Dear Editor,
    I just have to ask a question of the Austin Police Department. I had the unfortunate experience of visiting the Austin Police Department substation at Lamplight and Parmer Lane to obtain a copy of a police report for a stolen vehicle. While waiting in line, I perused the bulletin board in the police station across from the clerks' windows. There in the bulletin board window, I see a poster with the words, "What exactly do you miss about prison?" across the bottom and above it various examples of prison life. For example, an orange jumpsuit, a prison cell, a fence with curled-up razor wire. The last example took me a minute to process … I had to do a double-take: A square that shows a lonely sudsy bar of soap lying on top of a drain. What can they possibly mean? That you have to take showers in prison? I don't think so. In fact, I don't think it's a stretch to infer that they are advertising one of the conditions to look forward to in prison as being raped! It's bad enough that they do nothing to prevent the many rapes that go on in prisons, the spread of AIDS and other diseases. Now, they are going to use the idea of it in an ad to deter you from going to jail? Have they lost their minds?
    I am offended by this poster and the Austin Police Department needs to remove it immediately from all locations.

Dear Editor,
    I find it suspicious that the Austin Independent School District was going to support their arts group in performing Cabaret (which is about homosexuality, promiscuity, and drug use) but has withdrawn funding for Rent (which is about homosexuality, drug use, and promiscuity) because some people may find it offensive [“McCallum Fine Arts Academy: 'Rent' Due After All,” Arts, July 4]. Hmmm.

Dearest Mr. Black,
    Two or three cheers for the Live Music Task Force and their attempts to level the playing field for local musicians [“Can the Bands Play On?” News, July 18]; fact is, every city in this country has the same problem … too many musicians, not enough clubs to play in. It’s just that proclaiming this town as the Live Music Capital brings in an abnormally higher level of chronic unemployables who think they rock, dude.
    What nobody seems to be addressing is the fact that many of these folks aren’t very good, are they? Who wants to go down to Red River and get their ears assaulted by band after band of “musicians” who know about 10 chords, write insipid lyrics, and can’t even transpose their own songs from one key to another? If the level of talent were higher, the established clubs wouldn’t have to bring in so many touring acts. They could pick and choose from the existing pool of “artists” already here.
    Popular acts in town like Bob Schneider, for instance, don’t hire chimps to back them up. He has solid, well-versed players who can help him get his music across. Those musicians have spent many, many hours practicing on their own and can play well.
    If a person has chops and talent, he or she will attract an audience of some size, but even that doesn’t guarantee a career in music. That’s always been the case. It’s like watching all those fools on American Idol who deceive themselves into thinking they can sing; and what’s the ratio there? About one in one hundred actually make it past the judges. So … if we have 8,000 people clamoring for steady work, probably about 800 or less are worth listening to.

Dear Editor,
    On Friday, I found a dog wandering around at Barton Springs. He wore registered tags, and after an hour with nobody claiming him, I took him to the Town Lake Animal Center. I filled out the drop-off sheet with my name and number and expressed my desire to adopt him if the owners could not be contacted – he was a sweet dog.
    On Sunday, I went by TLAC to check up on him. An employee told me they left a message with the owners, the dog’s name was Chauncey, and if after three days the owners don’t respond, they would do an evaluation to decide if the dog should be adopted or euthanized. At that point, I reiterated that I would adopt him if they couldn't find the owner. She said to come back in a few days.
    On Tuesday, I tried calling with no response. On Thursday, I dropped by and found out the owners rejected him, and he’d been euthanized on Tuesday. My heart sank. I asked why I wasn’t called first, and their response was that they only call the owners for reclaim. So, instead of picking up the phone and saving a life, they killed a beautiful animal.
    Are TLAC employees that incompetent, or do they just not care? Whichever the case, it needs reform. Why can’t the city of Austin adopt the No Kill Advocacy Center model? Look at Reno and San Francisco – it works. We live in an animal-friendly community, and I don’t know what our tax dollars are paying for, but it’s not saving lives!
    It makes me sick and sad because I thought I was doing the “right” thing by the owner and the dog. Had I done the “wrong” thing and just kept the dog, he’d be alive and in a healthy home.

Dear Editor,
    A number of points in this column [“Page Two,” July 18] specifically reference my response to Stephen Moser's article [“After a Fashion,” June 27]. The reason I wrote with such a serious tone was due to the numerous acquaintances of mine who have been hit and oftentimes seriously injured by drivers, combined with the uncaringly flippant to actively aggressive attitude most drivers have taken when stopped by police or confronted by the injured cyclist.
    While I understand that what Mr. Moser wrote was (hopefully) in jest, his words still carry gravity and still fit the framework of the many uncaring and/or angry drivers that I've encountered while riding. I fully believe in free speech and don't think that Mr. Moser should be censored, but I wanted to speak up and inform him that his feelings toward cyclists didn't fall on deaf ears.
    When I labeled the ride as a celebration and not a protest, I wasn't being 100% truthful because no one can label the intentions of all the Critical Mass participants with a single term. Most of them are there to have a fun, relaxing, peaceful time riding bicycles with their friends. Yes, some are probably there to protest our society's dependence on oil/automobiles, rail against modern car culture, or actively promote any one of the thousands of causes that idealistic people take up these days. A handful are probably there to drink beer and be surly to cars. So whose purposes decide what Critical Mass is?
    At its core, CM is just a collection of individual bike riders that happen to meet at 5pm on the last Friday of every month on the UT West Mall, as has been happening for 15 years now. There's no direction planned, so where it goes or what happens from there is anyone's guess. We're not there to shut down a building or resist the police as a planned act of civil disobedience. When they issue their orders we obey and try not to cause problems for anyone. We're just looking to ride and not have to worry about getting hit for a couple hours out of the month. If you want it to be about civil disobedience, come and be disobedient, and possibly get a ticket. If you want it to be a pro-bike celebration, come and celebrate! The bottom line is that the ride is what you want it to be, if you participate.