Letters

Mash Note
I am writing in response to Paula Park's informative story about Deborah Mash's valiant effort to do research on ibogaine ("Addicted to Addiction," September 11). Since the controversial psychedelic has been used widely by addicts in Europe to reduce the craving for cocaine and heroin, why hasn't the Food and Drug Administration endorsed more research and development of ibogaine to be used by Americans addicted to drugs?

Deborah Mash might risk her credibility and reputation as a pharmacologist by operating a for-profit clinic in St. Kitts, but she is blazing a trail where a lot of academic scientists don't have the guts to go. I wish her luck in her endeavors.

Robert Stewart Denchfield
Miami Beach

This Is Your Captain Speaking -- Anonymously
As a captain on a Boeing 747 that regularly flies in and out of Miami, I totally agree with other angered citizens mentioned in Kirk Semple's article who, like me, live beneath the departure path of Miami International Airport ("It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a Noise-Abatement Issue!" September 11). There is absolutely no reason that every heavy aircraft departing MIA should not fly the International Civil Aviation Organization's close-in community departure profile. None. Not one. Almost every major First World airport in existence requires this profile. If you don't know what it is, look it up.

And you might check out information about Amsterdam's Schipol airport, one of Europe's busiest, which is about to be closed to all jet traffic during evening hours. That's like shutting down MIA from midnight to 6:00 a.m.

The incredibly corrupt Dade County Aviation Department has just not been offered the correct inducement. I'd bet that if someone came up with some hot cash in a cold bank account for the right people, noise abatement would be instituted overnight.

Like the pilot in Mr. Semple's story, I do not need to be identified. I am too well-known around MIA.

Name withheld by request
Miami

What a Stud!
Though I have not even heard Steve Winwood's new album, I am sure it has some fine moments and that Ben Greenman is just a dung beetle posing as a human being ("Arc of a Moron," September 11). No, wait -- that's an insult to dung beetles. But I'm sure he eats shit nonetheless.

Obviously the purpose of New Times is just to criticize -- not justifiably, but just to criticize. This brings to mind the old adage, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. And those who can't teach, teach shop." And now: Those who can't do anything, write for New Times.

Your "paper" serves no useful purpose that I can detect other than to prove what a great country this is that anyone (even total horses' asses such as yourselves) can have the right to free speech.

Regarding your insinuation that I have a "teeny-weeny insecurity" about my dick because I suggested that John Floyd has no dick (or balls, for that matter) because of his unfounded slams against James Taylor ("Letters," September 11), I assure you I have a dick, which is still in frequent demand, which I'm sure is more than John Floyd can say as I'm sure he couldn't get laid in a women's prison (or a men's prison, for that matter).

R. Rene Patenaude
East Otis, Massachusetts

Job Threatened by Road Not Taken
You could have taken the high road and coughed up an apology for John Floyd's low-road article ("Sickly Sweet Baby James," September 4). It was shoddy journalism -- and I use that word loosely. But you opted for a similar response to your feedback on the James Taylor article. How does the editor remain employed? Perhaps he won't for long.

Diane Thomas
Cary, North Carolina

One Mo' Time
I'd like to write a few positive words about MoJazz Cafe ("MoJazz No Mo'," September 4). For four and a half years it's been the only straight-ahead jazz club operating in Miami Beach, and I enjoyed many nights of wonderful music there. Kudos to Mo Morgen for keeping it open that long. It's already missed.

Bruce Huberman
Boca Raton

U.S. Doesn't Need to Go to Haiti to Find Tyrants
Regarding Jim DeFede's column "A Marked Man" (August 28), the Immigration and Naturalization Services's duplicitous detainment and interrogation of Haitian national Dany Toussaint resonated with the classic Orwellian theme of a ubiquitous government's lawlessness and impunity. How else would one explain the FBI machinations via e-mail and the inherently vindictive and personalized policy Congress has devised to bar Mr. Toussaint's entry into the United States?

As a future lawyer and a human being of conscience, I am appalled by the circumstances surrounding Mr. Toussaint's detainment. It is my understanding that the INS is an administrative agency with a narrowly defined mandate. Yet in this case we see the politicization of the INS as an instrument for formulating U.S. policy in Haiti.

Minimally speaking, the role the INS has played in the Toussaint affair thus far reeks of procedural irregularities. Moreover, the broad discretion afforded the INS through legislation legitimizes a policy of ad hoc decision-making fueled by unprincipled motives. I use the word unprincipled because there is simply no legal grounding for a standard that Toussaint's attorney, Ira Kurzban, characterizes as "ridiculous ... because the government does not have to prove anything."