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,
    Why bridges fail – about one-half of the Texas state gasoline-tax dollars fund projects other than roads. This includes 25% for education. Texas gets back only about 90% of its share of federal tax dollars, and the feds spend some 20% of the federal gas tax on transit. The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization 2030 plan spends 32% on nonroad projects. The bottom line is that we would have fewer problems with roads and bridges if all the gas-tax money was used for them and the tax was indexed for inflation. It makes me doubt that there is any intelligent life among our local to federal politicians and transportation bureaucrats.

Dear Editor,
    As a representative of an environmental group criticized recently by Chrystia Wynnck [“Postmarks” online, July 31], I take exception to her interpretations of recent campaigns against proposed coal plants and our "juvenile,” "ridiculous," "anti-everything" stance as part of a campaign against new nuclear plants at the recent opening of The Simpsons [“Naked City,” News, Aug. 3]. Her position that our campaign "resulted in the Austin area getting a dirty old coal plant" is, well, ridiculous and juvenile. In fact, the campaign – which consisted not only of environmentalists and activists but Dallas business leaders; more than 30 cities, school districts, and counties; a variety of local politicians; and others – led to the scaling back of plans to build a whole lot more coal plants. And now Central Texas leaders, including those from the aforementioned Texas Cities Clean Air Coalition, and the local opponents to the Oak Grove coal plant have separately filed motions and lawsuits to overturn that decision. It's not over.
    Now the 2005 Energy Bill provides literally billions of dollars for new nuclear plants, and seven have been proposed in Texas. Our photogenic, highly effective, street-theatre antics not only resulted in coverage but began to bring attention to an issue that is not on people's radar screen. The Lone Star chapter and others are opposed to both new coal plants and nuclear plants because they prevent a future energy plan that we do support: energy efficiency and renewables. The more we invest in old-style technologies the less likely an alternative energy development strategy without the pollution occurs. This energy platform is available on Sierra Club's website. Recently, the U.S. House passed legislation that would require that 15% of energy come from renewable sources. We and others also just helped pass a law doubling the energy-efficiency requirements for investor-owned utilities here in Texas. This doesn't happen without efforts by a lot of people and organizations.
    Meanwhile, I will don a C. Montgomery Burns mask one day or lobby a member of state or federal Congress the next (but without the mask). If Ms. Wynnyk doesn't want to play "Solar Girl" at our next renewable-energy event, I would invite her to join Sierra Club or some other group, add her perspective, and help us build people and political power. The way to build power is not to decide you don't have it and can't act but to build it one event at a time.

Dear Editor,
    To his credit, Louis Black has sniffed out the lunacy of the 9/11 conspiracy crowd in what amounts to a classic case of collective Dan Rather syndrome [“Page Two,” July 13]. The afflicted want something to be true so bad that any and every issue regarding 9/11 bolsters their aphasic argument, truth and reality notwithstanding. What astounds me is that Black is surprised and confused by their tactics and behavior when it seems like business as usual to me (coming from victims of liberal psychosis). Not that agenda-seeking, boorish Bush-bashing hypocrisy ever shamed the far left, but 9/11 drama queens seem to be caught in their own browbeating crossfire.
    Is Bush the imbecile that the broken-record rhetoric of the far left would have you believe, or is he a genius who even fooled the know-it-all liberal media? They can't have their sour grapes and eat them, too.

Mr. Black,
    I wanna know how “summer invites melancholy” [“Page Two,” Aug. 3]. Is it limited to the Chronicle's offices? Citywide? Is it catchin'?
    The awful national and state political climates are not limited to summer.
    So is it the climate climate?

Dear Editor,
    Thanks for the interesting and thought-provoking background presented in Wells Dunbar's presentation [“Beside the Point,” News, Aug. 3] with respect to the various considerations (and machinations) involved leading up to city of Austin's budget hearings.
    Gray Panthers seek one more “revelation” to the "three substantive lines of questioning already" Mr. Dunbar cites as priorities for pursuit by the City Council members: When might Austin citizens, taxpayers, and voters expect response from the mayor, council members, and/or city staff to questions raised in connection with the need for (clarity in) accountability for expenditure of housing bond funds?

Dear Editor,
    Michael Ventura’s Aug. 3 “Letters @ 3am” piece disregards crucial information that brands him unworthy of objective truth-telling and serious consideration. He could not bring himself to mention that the Japanese themselves were responsible for the carnage in the Pacific during World War II – including the use of the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki!
    The Japanese brutally attacked the U.S. in 1941. They and the German Nazis declared their mission of world genocide and tyranny. Had America not responded, humanity would have been shackled in torture, want, and despotism beyond anything we can imagine.
    For Mr. Ventura to indulge in this type of historical forgetfulness is shameful revisionist sophistry. Moreover, this line of facile thinking is a perfect example of the irrational defeatism practiced in current fashionable neo-leftist circles regarding our ongoing war against Islamist totalitarianism.
    We can only be thankful that during World War II and the Cold War this type of naive subjective memory was viewed as insane. As a result, America was united to defeat the Japanese, the Germans, and the Soviets. And Mr. Ventura’s mindset is just as unhinged today because our current enemies are as genocidal and tyrannical as our former enemies.

Dear Editor,
    In reference to Michael Ventura’s article entitled “8:15” [“Letters @ 3am,” Aug. 3].
    The bombs were named Fat Man and Little Boy. Fat Man being the plutonium implosion bomb, which was dropped on Nagasaki. Little Boy, which was dropped on Hiroshima, was a uranium-235 gun-type of bomb.
    He states that more than 200,000 people were “obliterated” in the bombings. Killed and wounded … yes. Obliterate means to “literally remove from existence: destroy utterly all trace, indication, or significance.” Perhaps he is using “journalistic license” to make his point. But to state that these civilians were wiped off the face of the earth is somewhat disingenuous.
    The Japanese were totally defeated and crushed economically and militarily, but Hideki Tojo and his cronies refused to see the reality of the situation.
    The civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not responsible for the atrocities committed by their military leaders. Neither were the civilian victims of Dresden, Tokyo, and other major cities in Europe and Japan that were subjected to the massive fire bombing by the Allies.
    Yes, America truly did open Pandora’s box. However, given the circumstances at the time, would we rather have had the Nazis or Japanese discover these weapons and use them on the Allies?
    As Robert Oppenheimer stated: “We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that one way or another.”
    These weapons changed the course of war and the way nations interact with one another. Let us pray we never use them again.

Dear Editor,
    I followed the Chronicle's four-star recommendation for Werner Herzog's film Rescue Dawn [Film Listings, July 27] and saw the movie this weekend. I left the theatre in awe of the "true story" of Dieter Dengler's capture and imprisonment as a prisoner of war in Laos. His eventual escape is a jaw-dropping tale of man against nature that recalls other Herzog films.
    I was so entranced that as soon as I arrived home, I Googled "Dieter Dengler.” That's when I found RescueDawntheTruth.com. Apparently, Herzog mightily offended the real-life family of one of Dengler's fellow American POWs in the camp. His name was Eugene DeBruin and in the movie was portrayed as obstinate, cowardly, selfish, and a little out of his mind. According to interviews with Dengler and Pisidhi Indradat (another POW imprisoned with them), nothing was further from the truth. Their accounts portray DeBruin as a selfless, intelligent peacemaker who sacrificed his decent chance at a successful escape to help a fellow prisoner who was sick with malaria as the others took off.
    Herzog had to have known of these accounts but chose to build DeBruin's character into a pathetic counterpoint to his hero's. This was needless. He already had the brutal guards and unforgiving jungle. Also, he could have fabricated a nonexistent character if that wasn't enough. Why destroy a valiant man's memory by using his name? Eugene DeBruin was tortured, held captive, and died or was murdered somewhere in Laos. Imagine his family's compounded pain upon seeing this film.
    I am a fan of Werner Herzog. I kept asking myself: "Why? Why did he write DeBruin that way?"
    I have a theory. I took a look at Herzog's main characters in Aguirre, Grizzly Man, and Rescue Dawn and saw a theme: selfishly driven, win-at-all-costs, egotistical men. Herzog may be drawn to these characters because he identifies with them. If this is so, a man like Eugene DeBruin, who gives what he has even when he has next to nothing and is not solely concerned with his own safety and future, must be mystifying to Herzog; he thinks surely he was crazy. The true counterpoint DeBruin would have provided to his hero, Dieter Dengler, may have been ultimately insulting to Herzog himself.
    I hope the moviegoing public will take the time to read the tale of the real Eugene DeBruin. I think he deserves a movie of his own.

Dear Editor,
    I guess it's that "tighty whitey" thing. The current shelter has been at that location for 50 something years and at a projected euthanasia rate of 57% for 2008 I wouldn't say that the "location, location, and location” (as some are fond of saying) has been a resounding success [“Proposed Animal Shelter Move Gets Community Howling,” News, June 15]. As far as the proposed new location being on the eastern edge of Austin? You folks who live west of I-35 need to spend a little more time on the Eastside. That location isn't the eastern edge of Austin any more than MoPac is the western edge of Austin. It might have been at one time, but times have changed.
    Who in Austin can dispute the simple fact that a well-written and properly enforced spay/neuter ordinance would have more impact on the intake and kill rate at Town Lake Animal Center than all this fuss over the shelter being located a few minutes farther east? I just see a lot of yuppies (Is that word still used?) upset that they might have to spend a little time east of I-35 doing something other than drinking margaritas at Las Comales. I don't know what is in their hearts and minds, but I would like to think they will not forfeit their commitment to animals just because they have to drive a little less than five miles farther east to reach the proposed new location. It's not like someone is asking you to drive I-35 in afternoon rush hour traffic. Hell a lot of them jog that far on a daily basis. And as for the west side adopters I suspect they will do what they've always done and go to PetSmart to look at adoptable pets in a more consumer-friendly atmosphere. After all, “That pound just makes them so uncomfortable."
    At one time we were focused on the real issues, but now this smoke screen has appeared, and they are delighted that it has taken attention away from the real issues of intake and kill rate. To the other Austin animal activists, y'all can do what you want, but I for one am not buying into the distraction issue of location. If location was the answer, then why has the current location worked? It's only been there a little more than 50 years? Are you asking for a little more time before we get to the real issue? Is that it? For Pete's sake, it's 2007; let that tighty whitey thing go and focus on the real issues.

Dear Editor,
    I've noticed in the Music Listings and ads over the past month or so that the number of really hot national touring acts coming through Austin has diminished dramatically.
    The Austin City Limits Music Festival has booked more than 300 acts for that one weekend. It seems to me that as fabulous as the fest is for the local economy for those few days, there is some downside to Austin's summer music season as a whole in not being able to have many of the hottest bands in the country coming through Austin regularly. On the other hand, I have noticed that a number of "local" artists have gotten headlining or co-bill spots at Stubb's and the Backyard, even though they don't sell out the shows, so maybe that's a balance. I'm just checking in to see if other Austinites have noticed.

Dear Editor,
    Michael Ventura has allowed his understandable distaste for war and death to cloud his judgment [“Letters @ 3am,” Aug. 3]. I live with the acts of atomic bombing every day; I would not be here without them. My father was a "guest" of the Japanese (their term for what we call POWs) for more than three years, and witnessed and experienced firsthand the brutality of the Japanese code of ethics. The Japanese educational system inculcated individuals from childhood with subservience to the state, the Shinto idea of a chosen Japanese people, and the literal divinity of the emperor. That training showed itself in 1942, in the Battle of Midway, where some 3,000 Japanese died – many choosing to burn to death in caves and shelters rather than surrender. Some 300 Americans died in that battle. Statistics indicated that only about 3% of Japanese soldiers were captured; the rest would die fighting. In 1945, with defeat clearly on the way for Japan, the 80,000 Japanese deaths resulting from only one of many days of firebombing had done nothing to dampen the national Japanese fighting spirit. If only 10% of the population chose to follow the code of ethics they had been taught from childhood, that would have meant 7 million Japanese deaths and a minimum of 700,000 American soldiers killed in combat. This does not include my father and other thousands of POWs who certainly would have been executed during a few months of fierce battle on the Japanese homeland. The Japanese government reportedly was prepared to lose as many as 20 million of their citizens to save their nation. These horrors were avoided by the decision to drop the bombs, which killed some 200,000 Japanese.
    I leave it to you to judge by what standard this great saving of human life – on both sides – would be called "evil.”

Hey Louis,
    Just wanted to weigh in (again) on the transit issues (from Katherine Gregor's article July 20) [“Streetcar Desires,” News]. While I do believe that if Mueller is excluded from Capital Metro's rail vision, it will be near impossible to explain and get out the vote around Mueller. I will try. I'll be a supporter of expanding rail transit in Central Texas, almost no matter what, which is the frustrating part – to have unshakable faith that the promised land includes a working fixed-guideway transit system but deep doubts about the agency I must follow in that faith.

Dear Editor,
    Good story on the lullabies for kids [“Rockabye Baby,” Music, Aug. 3]. But how could you not list Austin's own metal-for-kids band Rockosaurus Rex?
    Since pretty much all kids' music is folk-based they are the only real rock band for kids. You should check them out at www.rockosaurusrex.com.
    I got their CD, The Big Bang!, at Waterloo Records.

Dear Editor,
    We were one of the Top 5 winners for the Kill-a-Watt Challenge in the renters' group. I was just wondering if there was any way to let people know what all we have done and let them know about other things that we are doing to make their home more efficient. I have been doing a lot of research on the issue and have only implemented a few. But I plan on doing a lot more. The benefits far outweigh the cost.

   [Kill-a-Watt Challenge czar Nora Ankrum replies: We're currently interviewing all of the June winners and will be posting the results of those interviews on the Kill-a-Watt Challenge website (austinchronicle.com/watt). However, we would love for all Kill-a-Watt Challengers to share their energy-saving tips with us and with other participants, so feel free to post any advice you have in the Kill-a-Watt Challenge Forum, at austinchronicle.com/watt/forum.]

Dear Editor,
    Why haven't you submitted Michael Ventura for a Pulitzer Prize? That quality of writing deserves that quality of award!

Dear Mr. Barbaro,
    Sometime during the last two or three months, your tabloid published an article with a picture of my father, Albert Lavada Durst Sr. (aka Dr. Hepcat Lavada Durst), between photos of Bob Marley and Willie Nelson on the cover of High Times [“If You’re a Viper,” Music, May 25]. The caption under the picture insinuates to any reader that my father indulged in marijuana. The insinuation is a lie. No one living or deceased has ever witnessed my father indulging in marijuana. My father never smoked cigarettes, not to mention marijuana. Also, he did not consume alcoholic beverages. Why did the Chronicle publish this insinuation? My family in Texas sent me this photocopy. Had I been informed sooner, I would have responded to it sooner. The insinuation under the article says it all. My father had one “weak” eye, and that is the reason that he is wearing sunglasses, not because he indulged in marijuana.
    I am 62 years of age. I am a Vietnam veteran. My late brother was a veteran of the Korean War. He received four Purple Hearts. I grew up in Austin when blacks had to sit on the back of the bus. I graduated from high school in Austin when the high schools were segregated. I grew up in Austin when my father could advertise an establishment on the radio, but my friends and I could not eat inside of the establishment. We had to eat at the tables outside. I graduated from college in Houston. The same social consciousness that was taking place in Austin was also taking place in every little city between Austin and Houston. I attended Columbia University one summer on a scholarship. I attended Haverford College on a scholarship. I attended New Mexico State University when I was stationed at White Sands Missile Range after returning from Vietnam. I also attended Los Angeles City College on the GI Bill. I am telling you all of this because I want you to know that I know “what is right and what is wrong.” Insinuating lies regarding my father is wrong, and I am thoroughly upset. Unless the author who wrote the article can produce a picture of my father actually indulging in marijuana, he or she should be dismissed.
    There is no way that my family and I will let this matter go unaddressed. You would do the same for your father and your family. I will not let you or anyone else destroy my father’s reputation or his good name. At the time of my father’s death, Oct. 31, 1995, he was 81 years of age, and until his health started failing him, he was an associate minister at Olivet Baptist Church. My father has been deceased for almost 12 years, and your newspaper is the only newspaper in the world that has printed something negative about him. My question is, “Why?” Will you answer that for me, because my family and I don’t have the vaguest idea as to why you, the publisher, and Mr. Black, the editor, would allow this to happen, especially in a city that was formerly as racially prejudiced as Austin was? It would seem that since you have the resources of a newspaper, you would attempt to take the city of Austin forward, not backward.
    I don’t know if either of you had ever met my father. I don’t know if the author of the article ever met my father. If either of you did, you would know that he only indulged in conversation and not marijuana or alcoholic beverages. I intend to make sure that his good name and reputation rest in peace, no matter what I have to do.
    My family and I deserve an apology and an explanation as to how something like this was allowed to happen.

Dear Editor,
   Oh, this president and his Republican backers! They spent hundreds of billions of dollars (with a "b") destroying the infrastructure in Iraq, and it's our bridges falling down because money wasn't spent to maintain our infrastructure. Now we hear them complain that a few million dollars to provide medical insurance for our poor children is "too expensive." This Republican administration. Sheesh!

Dear Chronicle,
   The U.S. Congress has been negligent in holding the executive branch accountable for taking us to war in Iraq on fraudulent grounds. We must put pressure on our representatives to impeach. I urge all Austinites to sign the petition to the City Council to pass an impeachment resolution, at www.austinitesforimpeachment.org. Time is running short. We must stand up for accountability!

Dear Editor,
   We appreciate the Chronicle's attention to public-transportation issues, as demonstrated by Katherine Gregor's articles ["Streetcar Desires," "10 Reasons to Love a Streetcar," News, July 20]. One can see that she understands the importance of rail transit's influence on urban development and quality of daily life. Unlike the Statesman or especially the Austin Business Journal, The Austin Chronicle does not resort to the lazy reporter's habit of writing a news article on passenger rail and then, for "balance," calling up Jim Skaggs and adding his predictable anti-rail comments at the conclusion of the article.

Dear Editor,
   I'm having just a little difficulty understanding the point of Michael Ventura's entry this week ["Letters @ 3AM," Aug. 3]. That there was argument at the time about using the bomb is historical fact. Eisenhower, Stimson, Leahy, and Lemay were not privy to the internal Japanese documents that we can now view. That evidence clearly demonstrates at least a plan for the civilian population in the home islands to actively resist American occupation. It is naive and a little arrogant to think that, just because American civilians would not have acted in that manner, that Japanese civilians would not have either. There seems now to be pretty convincing evidence that the cost in lives on both sides had we actually invaded the home islands would have far exceeded the death toll from the two bombs combined. That, unfortunately, is the cruel arithmetic of war.
   If his point is that, in his opinion and despite the evidence, the use of the bomb was not then and could never be justified, he could have said so in far fewer words.

Dear Louis,
    Re: “Reptile Hunters Rattled Over Ban on 'Texas Tradition,'” July 27 [News]: In fact Rep. Harvey Hildebran and Mr. Todd Kercheval were not being up-front about what was in House Bill 12. I personally spoke to many representatives who were not aware of the riders within HB 12 and were very concerned with Hilderbran and Kercheval's actions.
    Kercheval goes on to say that "snakes are the biggest problem,” but the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department can't tell you how many snakes are coming out of the wild because the data that they collect is commercial data that reflects both captive-bred and wild-caught animals.
    The most alarming numbers within the commercial data were 84,000-plus rattlesnakes for roundups and 300,000-plus turtles for the Asian food market. According to those sources, 99% of those animals are harvested from private property, and this law will do nothing to address this travesty.
    Hilderbran's legislation unfairly discriminates against herpetologists who have no public land available to them. Look at California, Arizona, and New Mexico. It is legal to collect reptiles and amphibians on the road surface in each of those states, as well as large parcels of state and federally owned land. TP&WD allows hunting of game birds and game animals on Wildlife Management Areas but will not allow collecting of reptiles and amphibians across the board on those lands and offers no other alternatives.
    We support any legislation that protects reptiles and amphibians if it is backed by data that illustrates a clear need for said legislation. We do not support rattlesnake roundups, nor do we support the massive exportation of turtles for the Asian food market. This legislation doesn't begin to address those real problems.
    We want to be recognized as a legitimate segment of Texas sportsmen. We would like TP&WD to hire more herpetologists and devote more time, energy, and resources for nongame species. We'd like tighter restrictions on commercial take while finding a middle ground for hobbyist collectors with an allowance for selling captive born babies. Finally, we'd like to be involved in drafting regulations that work for everyone, most importantly the reptiles and amphibians.
    Hopefully Mr. Whittaker's article will bring light to these glaring inefficiencies within TP&WD, Rep. Hilderbran, and Mr. Kercheval's legislation.

Dear Editor,
    Even though Louis Black painfully laments Chronicle letter-writers spewing a “constant stream of vitriol” and “mean-spiritedness” [“Page Two,” Aug. 3], he should feel proud of himself as an obvious free-speech champion. That said, it is curious that Mr. Black has not been particularly interested in posting my recent pieces defending American military efforts in Iraq. I suspect these truths create discomfort for him because of his leftism. That’s OK. It’s his paper.
    But it must be repeated that Mr. Black’s continued denial of the necessity for victory in Iraq and the war against Islamist tyranny is deeply dishonest – leftism or not. After all, these realities pointedly affect him. In short, the Islamists are coming for him, his family, and all of us. They are aching to summarily torture and execute freethinkers such as Mr. Black. It is absolutely astonishing that he is unable to grasp these essential facts. After 9/11 this is not difficult.
    My Chronicle letters are focused on defeating the Islamist totalitarian movement. This one is no different. America is the only hope of a free humanity. If we lose our nerve and blink, the Islamists will defeat us. We must put aside the ignorant cowardice of moral relativism and blind passion of fashionable pacifism to achieve victory over despotic Islamism. That means victory over al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan. And equally vital, preventing the Iranian Shiite Mullahs from acquiring nuclear weapons is a priority – by force if necessary.
    It is sad and frightening that intelligent people such as Mr. Black are unable to accept these facts. But whatever the case, the Islamist enemy is attempting to march right through our living rooms. If they succeed, genocide and torture are certain. And the survivors will be condemned to Sharia hell. Only we can stop them.

   [Editor's response: Every e-mail and letter we receive gets posted online with very few exceptions. "Postmarks" space in the print issue is limited, so choices are made as to which letters are published.]

Dear Editor,
    Another conspiracy theory has passed into conspiracy fact. The BBC, using recently released congressional committee papers from the 1930s, has detailed the plot to install a fascist dictator and murder Franklin D. Roosevelt undertaken by a group of superwealthy Americans (www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml).
    The names documented using these official U.S. government records include one Prescott Bush, W.'s granddaddy. The plan (which may well have worked had it not been exposed by former Marine Gen. Smedley Butler) proposed to use 500,000 ex-soldiers to be paid by the likes of J.P. Morgan and other Wall Street biggies. (But you can't have a conspiracy with so many people involved, can you?)
    Looks like treason runs in families.