Complaints welcome
You have spelled the verb “to steal” “steel” (September 28) as in an alloy of iron and carbon, and splashed it across your front page.
I have two questions, one, who is supposed to control spelling and grammar mistakes, and two, do you do these things on purpose to create a controversy and get readers other than Mr. William Hayes to write to you?
Regarding the letters from William Hayes I never read them any more; as a matter of fact I dearly wish Mr Hayes would return to his home land, but then, of course, the Australian press would not print his ravings and rantings, so in a way you are keeping him here.
City
Christina Reese

Néstor Kirchner is investigating. Ed.

Complaints supplied and welcome
As to the complaints about the letters from Bill Hayes, may I say the following.
I moved to Argentina several years ago in large part to get away from President Bush and shortly after relocating here I first read a letter from Hayes in the Herald. I was struck at how he hit the nail on the head, so much so that I e-mailed him (I never received a reply).
Although I could live without the tidbits of his personal life, I find his letters thought provoking, and as I said, right on about Bush and what is going on in the United States.  I look forward to more of his letters. If people don’t like them they simply don’t have to read them.
Mar del Plata
Dena Spielberger
serranofarmdad@hotmail.com

Language, Made in...
Wow! Front page news, no less: “Thieves STEEL Coppola’s...”  What did they do? Wrap it up in shining armour? One more proof of what Argentina has become. Everything gets done just para salir del paso
Jorge E. Lanús
jorgelanus@fibertel.com.ar

We have already apologized more than once for problems arising in the transition to our new composition system. Ed.

Globetrotter praised
What a wonderful piece of serious journalism from Globetrotter (October 1). He is quite correct that this thing with Iran is all “Much ado about Nothing.”
Making matters worse for the Bush administration, is the fact that North Americans don’t seem to care about the Pretend Nuclear threat from Iran. They perhaps had enough with the pretend reasons of WMD being the reason for invading Iraq.
So Washington has changed the rhetoric in the last few weeks to the fact that Iran are supplying the weapons that are killing US troops.
This new lie is flying well as no one is going to contradict it.
 As for the French threat, for the last 30 years they are guilty of testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific, despite complaints from Australia and New Zealand. The French  bombed the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour, killing one man on board. Two French secret servicemen and a woman were captured by the New Zealand police and returned to France to serve a prison sentence.
As for going to war, France took three weeks to capitulate to the Germans in 1940  and became the biggest collaborators in Europe. And etc.
So let’s forget Iran and spare a thought and a prayer for the four million refugees and 600,000 dead in Iraq.
In the words of Greenspan “It’s all about oil.” The Saudis are building a new US$7 billion refinery in Texas.
Hurlingham
William Hayes

Modern times
The modern world has surprises. Homosexuals (gays) and lesbians have existed since time began. But at least they didn’t rush around making their abnormality known to everybody. As somebody once said: “If you have to do something crude and abnormal, for goodness’ sake do it behind closed doors!”
Today the gays seem proud of the fact, have their clubs, ask for government subsidies — just like the piqueteros — who get paid to interrupt the traffic of normal people whose only sin is to drive to work.
If I were still at an age when I paid taxes, I would refuse on the pretext that I don’t see why my money should go for that purpose. In my younger days a gay person was somebody cheerful and possibly funny, but certainly not homosexual.
La Cumbre, Córdoba
Alejandro de Basily

The word “gay” was used to refer to homosexuals in the eighteenth century in England. Ed.

September 15 selection
After looking through the September 15, Looking Back, supplement I was not at all satisfied.
The supplement editor states on page two that: “In recent years... this paper’s policy has been, to concentrate editorial comment on national rather than international” issues. But, surprisingly, the “national” events quoted in the supplement have excluded mention of issues such as the disappeared people, including their kidnapped offspring.
Also, I was not content to learn that the supplement editor did not include the brutal bombing of the Embassy of Israel, in 1992, or the terrorist attack on the AMIA, in 1994 — on Saint Patrick’s Day. And the selection ignored the murder of Catholic seminarians and priest and a bishop, during the dictatorship.
The “national” selection, according to the editors, does not include mention of the election of Argentine Nobel Prize winners, and there is no mention of any women, in politics or science.
I did not enjoy the articles that referred to Jorge Luis Borges or to Astor Piazzola. And there was no balance in the space given Tiger Woods and Marilyn Monroe, for example.
I would have preferred photos of the original editorials quoted, including reproductions of the publicity of half a century ago, especially of companies that are still in business and were congratulating the Herald at the time.
The “national” events chosen answer to a stereotype, wishy-washy reality, which nowadays excludes the genocide of the Chaco indigenous communities.
Anyway, apart from all that, keep going. The Herald is my favourite paper.
City
S. Molica Nardo Kearney

Thank you, Mrs Susana Molica Nardo Kearney. As the supplement introduction said, only a limited selection could be included, and readers could write in their own choice of dates. Thank you for yours. Ed.

Ayn Rand lit crit
The informative article by Harriet Rubin on Ayn Rand’s literature of capitalism, On Sunday, September 23) stirred in me memories of my fascinating debates with one of her fans back in the early sixties.
I got to know Susan Padolsky because we both frequented the office of the student newspaper at the University of Illinois, where this girl from Chicago told me about the playboy philosophy.
I supposed that Ayn Rand was just as non-Christian as Hugh Heffner, and confess I never read one of her huge novels. But I was inspired to write a letter (to the Daily Illini, of course) about those who use Playboy magazine as their prayer book. The editor, Roger Ebert, printed the letter.
What little good I can think to say about the “me first” philosophy of Ayn Rand is that Jesus did frequently repeat the teaching in Leviticus 19:8, “‘Though shalt love they neighbour as thyself‘.” Many Christian commentators point out that we must first love ourselves to have a measure whereby to love our neighbour.
City
Richard McMullin

Letters galore
Belatedly, thank you to all readers, friends and critics for the good wishes sent to the Herald for our 131st anniversary on September 15. Thank you very much to individual readers, such as Mrs Molica Nardo Kearney (above), and many other writers and supporters. Also thank you to Mario Vicens, president of the Asociación de Bancos de la Argentina, to the press chief at the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces, to Dr Luis Ovsejevich, president of the Fundación Konex, to Gustavo Vittori, president of the ADEPA newspaper publishers association, to constitutional expert Dr Gregorio Badeni, to Alberto Grimoldi, vice-president of the Cámara Argentina de Comercio, to Mrs Esther Garabato, president, and Nilda Crivelli, of the Asociación Argentina de Rosicultura, to the Agrupación Veteranos de Rugby, and to many, many more.
Thank you all. Stay with us.