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

Dear Editor,
    I have been holding my breath for more than a year, and no one has said it. Ammo! I am a Vietnam era vet – one of the very first women to qualify with the M60 machine gun with a wet bench chemistry background. Do you know the nonexistent regulation on ammunition in Texas? Yeah, that cold dead hand is unfortunately true – but ammo, is that a constitutional right? I freely cannot purchase pseudoephed, but a handful of hollow points, no problem. A decade or so ago, a Round Rock middle school student via the Web successfully created a PVC firearm complete with ammo. The thing is, he missed aim and hit himself. If only these fools had to make their own, we might have a 50-50 chance they would blow themselves up.

Dear Editor,
    Your article on Waller Creek [“Going With the Flow”, News, Jan. 11] correctly identifies one Texas obsession – football – as a cause of the 1969 Waller Creek “riot.” However, the article failed to indict the other Texas obsession which is equally to blame – the automobile. The UT stadium could have been expanded without jeopardizing the century-old cypresses along the creek. Unfortunately, the university felt that it also needed a four-lane road (San Jacinto Boulevard) running through campus. Since there wasn’t room enough for trees, four lanes, and the stadium expansion (the efforts of us “rioters” notwithstanding), the trees were cut down. Ironically, within a couple of years, university administrators realized that it was colossally stupid to have four lanes running through campus, so they reduced San Jacinto to two lanes with restricted access. Needless to say, that delayed insight came too late to save the cypresses.

Dear Editor,
    Although I am not by any stretch a sports fan, nor do I follow “celebs," I have avidly followed the Lance Armstrong controversy in the Chronicle and elsewhere. Boy, was I fooled: I thought that he was telling the truth when he said that he never took performance-enhancing drugs.
    I am so disappointed to find out that the guy in the white hat is a liar and a cheater. It is really disheartening. Was the hype, money, and fame worth cheating for? Evidently so. I don’t think that anybody at this point really cares whether Lance Armstrong is allowed back into competitive cycling again. To me, he is, and always will be, persona non grata.
    I just hope that the LiveStrong Foundation can survive this whole thing. I think that they should start with a name change.

Dear Editor,
    Kevin Martin, people like you are the real problem South Lamar faces [“Postmarks,” Jan. 11]. A resident for less than a decade and you think you know what is best for the area’s soul? That McDonald’s you complain about is there for a reason. It, along with several other fast-food eateries on Lamar – and recently lost longtime businesses, such as Ray Hennig's Heart of Texas Music and South Austin Machine Shop – have served the community well with services and employment for a long time, much more than Barley Swine will. It’s a shame longtime residents and businesses are being displaced by the likes of you, trying so hard to be the real Austin and totally missing the mark. Hell, not even seeing the mark.
    You are not South Austin, only a continuation of the plague spreading from Downtown. South Austin is a way of life and an attitude the likes of you will never understand. That area of Lamar is south of the river, but no longer South Austin. Just like SoCo, the soul was removed when the longtime residents and businesses were displaced to make way for the likes of you. Now go grab a shake and some fries at McD’s and watch the mini golfers next door and enjoy what you have before it is all gone.

Dear Editor,
    In regards to the registration/admissions staff, ER doctors and nurses, aides, PTs, transporters, housekeeping, kitchen staff, techs, neuros, dietitians, clinical assistants, hospitality, and everybody else who works at University Medical Center Brackenridge that made my stay there last week so prompt, easy, pleasant, and complete with your competence, skills, abilities, and smiles: y'all rock!
    I called Beyoncé and Jay-Z and told them that the hospital they rented when their baby was born had nothing on UMC Brack.
    (And hey Brack CEO, give all of your employees a hefty raise – they are the best in the business. For realsies.

Dear Editor,
    In regards to your game app reviews: How could you leave out The Simpsons: Tapped Out? I know many of us are building Springfield up every day. Please check it out and tell us what you think. Thanks for your time.

Dear Mr. Moser,
    When I first moved to Austin in 1997 and started reading the Chronicle, I was confused and disappointed by your “After a Fashion” column. It just seemed to be a society page with a lot of name-dropping that had absolutely nothing to do with fashion.
    I hope this is not too strange.
    Since your diagnosis, after the dramatic coping mechanisms, your columns fascinate me. They have improved dramatically. Not only have you actually written about fashion, but you have returned to design, yourself.
    You are showing a strength of spirit in the face of a terrible illness within your words. And, in my opinion, all that you have dealt with has made you more eloquent.
    Just to let you know where I’m coming from – I write, myself. Never professionally, but I do love writing. I’m the son of an English teacher.
    I have dabbled in fashion design (a long time ago), have sold men’s clothing, was a hairdresser for 10 years, and am currently on my way to begin designing some very strange jewelry. The point of all that is – to someone like me, you are an inspiration. I’m even thinking about learning to sew now. (The stuff I did before was altering existing garments.) Anyway, just wanted to show some luvs. Keep your fur-lined fighting gloves on, and beat the shit outta this cancer.
    You’ve come a long way, baby.
    And consider this for your own inspiration: Most people with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) die within seven years of diagnosis. Stephen Hawking has had it for decades – he is the longest-living known ALS patient, and one of the sharpest minds the scientific world has known.
    So keep on rockin’.

Dear Editor,
    I wish I lived two blocks or more from the proposed site of Little Woodrow’s [“Council Preview: A Bar on Burnett?!?,” News, Jan. 11]. I live much closer, and I have neighbors that are within spittin’ distance of the proposed bar. Unlike Ginny’s Little Longhorn, this bar is planning to be open until 2am every night. Unlike Ginny’s, this site has very little parking, leaving bar patrons the option of parking on residential streets and then driving on them in inebriated states – endangering property and the lives of residents. Mr. Engel could bring in an Austin Java without a zoning change – and still serve alcohol – with the support of the neighborhoods. Why should the Council rezone for a bar knowing that the problems with subsequent permits will be onerous if not impossible to overcome? We have Ginny’s and the Poodle Dog now, and the proposed site can be used for a restaurant which is much more compatible with the neighborhood.