OPINION

Unfair on parents

Re: "Grade rage rises", (PostBag, Aug 15), "Probe sought into pupil attack on teacher", (BP, Aug, 13) & InBrief, "Defamation" (BP, Aug, 7).

A letter writer takes aim and triples their stress level by blaming the parents for everything that's happened!

No evidence is offered, just endless accusational slander, from a "Paul", bravely hiding behind a single pen name.

Paul, who knows nothing about the parents of the troubled boy, smears the parents' honour, integrity and community reputation.

He repeatedly blames the parents: "... the fault of overbearing parents...", " I think the M5 student was under pressure from his parents"..."anything less than an A was unacceptable to his mother and father."

I repeat, no evidence is offered, only a contemptible, compassionless, self-important, "I believe".

Turning to the news in brief in the paper, I see one item concerns "defamation" committed by a former senator.

The senator was recently sentenced to eight month in prison. His unproven allegations, "...damaged a [couple's] reputation and caused public misunderstanding", it says.

Courts run amok

Re: "Law gone rogue", (PostBag, Aug 16).

George is 100% correct when he notes that our courts have their priorities upside down.

Our justices are roaring lions on minutiae, like booting out Samak Sundaravej for being paid for appearing on a cooking show, yet docile kittens when it comes to hanging offences like punishing generals who take over elected governments by force.

Now, PM Paetongtarn may be dismissed for her phone conversation with Cambodian strongman Hun Sen.

Was she naive?

Extremely so, but we elected her because of her name, not her brain.

Lacking treasonable acts to back her ill thought-out words, it should be for the electorate to punish her at the polls.

The courts have deprived us of our prime minister in a time of crisis.

Put her back as PM soonest.

Then, expedite coordinating with the EC and DSI to investigate the 136 senators implicated in election collusion and money laundering.

This case is more crucial to our fledgling democracy than probing either our PM or her dad.

Bold MAHA claims

Re: "Cancer Fairy tale", (PostBag, Jul 30) & "Can MAHA make America healthy again?", (Opinion, Aug 12).

The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement is perhaps the most significant political movement in the United States today.

Those at risk of losing revenue, power and status from coming policy changes are waging an all-out information war to protect their economic interests.

Chufflebottom's rebuttal in support of government, industry and academic collusion to produce seemingly definitive but patently false narratives claims that "turbo cancers are a myth created by conspiracy theorists".

Just a few examples should suffice to illustrate his inability to distinguish myth from reality: "What to Know About Rising Rates of 'Early-Onset' Cancer," (Yale Medicine, Aug 1, 2024), "Rise in aggressive forms of cancer in younger adults," (ABC News, March 20, 2025).

Still others are "The global epidemic of early-onset cancer" (Annals of Oncology, September 2024), "Early-onset gastrointestinal cancer rates are rising globally" (British Journal of Surgery, July 2025) and "Cancer statistics, 2025" (Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Jan 2025).

I find it difficult to understand why anyone would strive to distort and discredit such important information just to be "right" or make money.

These are indeed dark times.