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,
    For some time President Obama has been weighing the request of the commanding general in Afghanistan for additional troop support. He has consulted with many, but as far as I can perceive, Gen. Colin Powell has not been asked for his views. It would be a tragic error if this was the case. It should be remembered that Gen. Powell is the only U.S. military commander in the last 56 years who planned a war that was won. No one in today's military can make that claim.

Dear Editor,
    In the last year, San Antonio, Dallas, Plano, and Fort Worth have all passed spay/neuter laws. About 35 other cities, including Seattle, Los Angeles, and Albuquerque, already have them in place. Austin can try to sell itself as an educated, progressive, and forward-thinking city all it wants. When it comes to our pets, it simply isn't true. We still ride the ranges here.

Dear Editor,
    I was pleased to see the Austin City Council vote unanimously to give the Texas Department of Transportation $16 million to build additional highway flyovers directly over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. Since this construction will primarily benefit suburban commuters, this must mean the financial crisis is over. I can't imagine City Council giving TxDOT $16 million of our money to facilitate even more sprawl in Travis and Hays counties unless every central city priority had already been met and they just couldn't think of anything else to spend it on. TxDOT plans to pay "80% of the money back over 10 to 15 years," during which time the city will pay $2 million to $3 million in interest. What a great deal for Austin taxpayers! Of course, given how broke TxDOT is, I wouldn't necessarily hold my breath waiting. One can only imagine what kind of secret backroom deals with roadway lobbyists led to this particular fleecing of Austin taxpayers. One can only imagine, because a few years ago Austin voters, with much encouragement from this very publication, wisely decided that ordinary citizens have no business whatsoever knowing what happens in meetings between City Council folk and lobbyists and soundly defeated an initiative requiring transparency in local government. An anonymous local pundit was was kind enough to explain it to me: "Government simply can't function without secret meetings between elected officials and lobbyists, you naive dolt!" Silly me; I had no idea. But anyway, as I was saying, given that the financial crisis is over and all, I'm looking forward to a nice fat property-tax cut next year. Many thanks to City Council. Central Austin voters could really use a break next year, and thanks to your extraordinary fiscal prudence, it looks like we're finally going to get one. You guys rock!

Dear Editor,
    Re: "Bill Narum (1947-2009)" ["Off the Record," Music, Nov. 27]: Bill was a friend and a fellow traveler since the late 1970s. We were not close but friends nonetheless and had dozens of mutual friends. La Bastille, Anderson Fair, Calico Print Company, KLOL, the Old Quarter, Fitzgerald's – during the late '70s in Houston, Bill and his lovely artwork were everywhere all at once. I was a stringy punk kid just starting in the arts, yet Bill always had a kind word and a smile for me. I first met another young stringy kid by the name of Stevie Vaughan at one of Bill's openings at Anderson Fair. Nobody I know involved in the arts in the state of Texas ever had a single bad thing to say about Bill. Besides being a great artist, he was a fair and intelligent businessman. This is a rare combination anywhere – especially here. My return to Austin has not necessarily been easy. I've grown and so had the town while I was away. One of the highlights, however, was running into Bill at several openings. It was nice to see him again in a more settled and less mischievous environment. He seemed genuinely happy and very much at home and in love with Gloria. When the accounts are all settled, Bill will be remembered as a great American artist every bit the equal of Pollock, Rockwell, or Warhol. Together with his contemporaries – Franklin, Juke, Yeates, and Priest – he co-founded an entire school of art which continues to thrive today long after "the incense burned away." At one point in time, there was not a kid in Houston who didn't own a K101 runaway radio T-shirt. That station and its programmers helped to start Southern rock and started my lifelong love affair with radio. I still listen all night long. He influenced hundreds of thousands of Texas artists just by being himself and doing his own thing very well. My sincerest condolences to Gloria, Michelle, Nico, Billy, Dusty, Frank, and Bill. "When things go wrong, so wrong with you it hurts me too." – Elmore James

Dear Editor,
    Five months until the Texas Relays, and we are hearing about racism already. The public urination and fights are real, the gunshots are real, the traffic snarls (due to lines of cars ignoring red lights on the southbound I-35 access road) are real, and the assaults on local club workers are real. Downtown businesses closed (or planned to) because regulars stay home, business is poor (usually just like Mardi Gras and Halloween), and their employees are at risk. These establishments close not because the people are black; it's because the people are assholes.

Dear Editor,
    Did the Chronicle think that it was serving justice to animals raised for food by covering the story of Sebastien Bonneu, founder of "Animal Farm" [Food, Nov. 20]: Bonneu boasted himself as a man aiming to please his customers, but isn't he, in the end, simply a supplier of hacked-up body parts from slaughtered, innocent animals? How offensive was it to see a picture of Bonneu holding up a helpless rabbit, surveying the "almost perfect" specimen for quality choice cuts. Bonneu's farm is no better than a factory farm. Although Bonneu claimed his "customers know where this meat came from," the Chronicle and Bonneu failed to mention the fact that while the animals might be raised in better conditions, the name of the game is still murder.

Dear Editor,
    I am glad that Mr. Ventura and the Chronicle have brought up the Holocaust … the Congo … and Armenia – too bad you didn't mention all the massacres of the evil Bushes: George W.'s many and numerous war crimes and murders of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Iraq, his mass-murderer daddy's slaughter of tens of thousands of liberal activists in Central America during the 1980s, not to mention the War on Drugs debacle! I just wish these two evil killers could somehow be brought to justice by the international criminal court; they are certainly genocidal maniacs. Next as the target of the far right is every single man, woman, and child here in America who is a liberal Christian, or just a liberal person! The Republican Party has been preaching hatred and intolerance for everyone and everybody since the 1980 election of its Führer Ronald Reagan, another bloodthirsty mass murderer of liberals around the world. To learn more about the Holocaust and genocide in general, I suggest a visit to the Holocaust Museum in Houston. Or watch the PBS “POV” documentary Inheritance about Helen Hirsch. Ms. Hirsch is also a character portrayed in the movie Schindler's List. And watch the movie Escape From Sobibor with Alan Arkin, based on the book Sobibor, The Forgotten Revolt by Thomas Toivi Blatt. His website is www.sobibor.info. These will help any person to learn about intolerance.

Dear Editor,
    Ephraim Levin writes [“Certain Fort Hood Was a Terrorist Attack,” Postmarks, Nov. 20], “Investigators will find the antagonist was recruited and trained by a terrorist group.” The best known reporting so far is that Major Nidal Malik Hasan sought out an al Qaeda contact (they didn't recruit or train him) – maybe. Maybe it is true that he was indeed recruited and trained by a terrorist organization – the U.S. Army. Or does Levin perhaps mean to say that all Muslims are a terrorist group? That would be in keeping with the conservative evangelical Republicans in this state and country who support the Christian jihad against Islam, which dovetails nicely with America's war for resources in Iraq and Afghanistan and the eventual attack on Iran (don't think we won't attack them just because Obama is president). George W. Bush named Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as the “axis of evil” and worthy of preemptive strikes in the “war on terror” – what if mainland China had taken him at his word and dropped a million soldiers on Baghdad in the name of finding weapons of mass destruction and fighting terrorism? What would the response of the chicken hawks have been to that? Or just maybe the major was a whacked-out, mentally ill Army officer caught up in the frustration of seeing so many lives – American and otherwise – ruined by our imperialist aggression. No doubt his actions were premeditated and rose to the crime of murder, but terrorism? No. This was a crime, just as the events of September 11 were a crime. This crime should be investigated as a crime, not used as justification for continued U.S. aggression abroad.

Dear Editor,
    I recently attended a symposium being held at the Hilton-Austin hotel near the convention center. This was my first trip to Austin and to Texas. It was a great visit. Austin is a really beautiful city, and everyone was friendly. I would like to thank the many establishments in the Trinity and Sixth Street area for making a very happy memory. There are too many good places to mention them all, but I would like to thank the folks at the Lodge – the moose on the wall made me feel at home. Thank you, Austin!

Dear Editor,
    Thank you, Nora Ankrum, for comprehensively covering the efforts to move Austin beyond coal [“AE's Coal Conundrum,” News, Nov. 20]. Sierra Club and our environmental and bicycling community partners were delighted with the turnout and unity behind the Roll Beyond Coal message at our rally on Oct. 31. Sierra Club is committed to getting Austin off coal as soon as possible. We are working in Austin neighborhoods through weatherization workshops to make Austin homes as energy-efficient as possible. Sierra Club fully supports on-site solar power as soon as possible on rooftops of Austin government buildings, businesses, schools, churches, homes, and parking garages. We believe Austin can do it. Austin can roll beyond coal. We are one of the first cities in the U.S. leading the way to clean power, green jobs, and clean air.

Dear Editor,
    Re: The review of Antichrist [Film Listings, Nov. 20]: Though I'm sure you've been made aware of this already by both of the Danish ex-pats that reside in Austin, filmmaker Lars von Trier is not Dutch. He is a Dane, born in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Dutch and the Danes don't even speak the same language.
    C'mon, Savlov. Try and keep up!

Dear Editor,
    Adrian Maceiras states in his Nov. 19 letter that "policies and the ideas they espouse should be debated on their merits" [“Postmarks” online]. I agree entirely with this statement, which is why I feel that people running to the Constitution or to the private writings of Thomas Jefferson as defense for their political ideas are intellectually dishonest. You cannot claim to judge ideas purely on their merit and then turn around and accuse others of "cherry-picking" when they do the same. Just because Jefferson said or did something does not make it immune to judgment.
    However, back to the subject at hand: Ron Paul has stated very clearly that he does not believe that the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights should apply to state governments. (See www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul120.html for his own statement on the matter.) This is not a "fierce defense of liberty" by any stretch of the imagination. It is a call for localized theocracy. Anyone who lives in Texas and is not a conservative Southern Baptist should be scared to death of Ron Paul's ideas.

Dear Editor,
    Apparently the gay marriage ban in 2005 made all marriage illegal in Texas. Subsection B declares "this state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage."

Dear Editor,
    Let’s effect some positive change, shall we? As International Human Rights Day approaches (Dec. 10), I’m drafting letters to foreign heads of state on behalf of prisoners of conscience all over the globe. From Mexico to Nepal, Uzbekistan to China, folks endure prison for documenting incidences of rape, for protesting the demolition of their homes, or, in the case of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, winning a landslide election.
    Personally, I’m considered the “radical” minority; friends dismiss such calls to action. I’ve heard, “Why waste your time?” or “Letter writing is passé and ineffective,” or best of all, “That stuff makes me uncomfortable.” (Me too!) So thanks to the naysayers, I’m thinking bigger: Austinites, can you spare five minutes to improve the life of a global community member? Got a stamp? More resources at: www.amnestyusa.org/writeathon.

Dear Editor,
    Congressional job approval rates have been around 25% to 30% for quite a while. I think I have a solution. It involves a couple of steps.
    1) Line up all of the members of Congress.
    2) Ask any of them who were lawyers, business executives, or insurance agents/executives to step forward. (This will be a large number.)
    3) Fire those who stepped forward.
    4) Elect new people who are more representative of our population and not so biased toward their previous interests.
    By the way, this will work well for members of both parties.

Dear Editor,
    On Nov. 6 I posted what was titled “Birth of Texas Independence Movement” [“Postmarks” online]. I then posted a clarification of the original statements, prefaced by the observation that a more apt moniker might be “Texas Independence Manifesto.” (Texas only has relevance because this writer lives here; rather than being “central” to North, Central, and South America, Texas demarcates approximately the northern third.)
    The core of the manifesto is that every person in the world has the same unalienable rights which our Founding Fathers claimed for the colonists. Whether these rights originate from God or existence itself is not as relevant as the premise that they do not originate from man or his governments. Thus, they cannot be justifiably withheld by governments for any reason, war or civil strife notwithstanding.
    Many wars have been fought to assert America’s “independence”: the 1812, the Civil, World War I, World War II, the Korean, (theoretically) the Vietnam, the Gulf, and the controversial invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. The American men and women who died or were maimed in these wars did so, earning our gratitude, to defend our independence and our Constitution. Yet again, that sacrifice in and of itself is not why we claim our unalienable rights (or only soldiers themselves could make that claim). These rights (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness) belong to every human being upon his or her birth onto our planet.
    It is important to assert these rights now, for all, because they are a relatively new concept for mankind, and our nation is under great stress. As we embark upon new frontiers of global communication, we must carry these freedoms forward.

Dear Editor,
    Christian Wagner’s suggestion [“Postmarks,” Nov. 20] that Ron Paul is a neolithic statesman whose fierce defense of liberty has no place in our current age is a trite straw man. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are timeless documents, and their contained logic is not subject to some arbitrary expiration date. If, as he suggests, age is the bar by which to measure the soundness of our policies, then why have countless numbers of people spanning the political spectrum voiced their opposition to the PATRIOT Act, Military Commissions Act of 2006, and the innumerable other abrogations of our age-old natural rights? Habeas corpus was first affirmed with the Magna Carta of 1215; surely then, in its vapid decrepit age, it should be rightfully abolished. Policies and the ideas they espouse should be debated on their merits, not on some haughty air of ostentatious superiority. It seems from my vantage point that Wagner would like nothing more than to cherry-pick aspects from these documents, ignoring the parts that do not suit his open-armed embrace of an expansive central government. If we each ignore the aspects that don’t fit our own myopic world-view, then what is left? The founders foresaw this and provided our nation with a purposefully arduous process (Article Five) to accomplish such aims. These changes were not to be taken lightly nor were they for transient concerns. Therefore, ignoring this ageless document is the pinnacle of haphazard change our founders not only warned against but provided safeguards against. Lest we forget its intended purpose: “In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” – Thomas Jefferson, 1798

Dear Editor,
    In last week's edition of the Chronicle, a letter of mine was published in which I blasted Marjorie Baumgarten's film criticism [“Postmarks,” Nov. 20]. But I made a terrible error in attributing to her a review of The Perfect Storm. You corrected me and pointed out that it was Marc Savlov, not Marjorie, who wrote the review of that film. My apologies to Ms. Baumgarten for my error. Sure, I consider her reviews to be awful, but she shouldn't be held responsible for a review she didn't pen. So instead, let me say to Mr. Savlov: "WTF, dude?" Typically, I agree with your take on films, and even when I disagree slightly, I still appreciate the verve and passion of your writing. But … The Perfect Storm? Really, Marc? I guess it goes to show that even great minds sometimes don't think alike.

Dear Editor,
    Re: “Headlines” [News, Nov. 20]: The Trail of Lights is one of the Top 10 best holiday light displays in America posted by USA Today. Here is the link: www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/10great/2007-12-06-10-great_N.htm. And how can the city scale it down when it draws more than 250,000 people each year? Why do city officials have to ruin a tradition like this? Even if the city charges $2 or $3, that still comes out to be around half a million dollars. What is the city doing?