re: "There Is No Dignity in This Kind of America"

re: "There Is No Dignity in This Kind of America" (The New York Times, February 27, 2023)

Mr DeSantis should also take the opportunity to wind back those new-fangled sciences that have led too many good Americans away from their god-given Christian faith. It is rationality of the most devilish sort to think that mere human observation and sound reason can trump the Bible when it comes to planetary motion and the divine origin of man, from whom woman was later crafted with no hint of gender fluidity. Were such things possible, they would have been recorded in Genesis and the other biblical books that teach the divine order as understood by those who got their wisdom from burning bushes. 

DeSantis knows that Americans have been allowed to taste too copiously of the tree of knowledge, and that that rot at the very heart of culture must be turned back lest the fruit of the tree of life also be consumed, with liberating consequences for humankind, even in Florida. 

For God (the one true one at least, but perhaps not all those lesser other gods not privileged to be born again in USA) saw what he had wrought, and it did not need men with either knowledge of good and evil, or of life running around spoiling everything. Hence the divine punishment on those upstart women wantonly desiring knowledge and life that "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;" for a husband who "shall rule over thee" (Gen. 3:16). 

Thus shall it ever be, and the US will be saved from the dire threats posed by the knowledge and life that comes from the bountiful garden of liberal democracy.   

_______________________________

The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to The New York Times article.

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/27/opinion/desantis-higher-education-bill.html#commentsContainer&permid=123460090:123460090

Coups cost country

re: "Changing Thailand: a series (prologue)" (BP, Opinion, February 23, 2023) 

Dear editor,

Chartchai Parasuk rightly draws the stark comparison between Thailand's modern economic growth and that of Malaysia and South Korea. South Korea especially is the telling comparison. From the 1960s through 1980s, both nations were on similar economic trajectories, although South Korea had already began to move forward. 1980 is the salutary year.

South Korea was able to take off economically only after 1980, when that nation was finally able to rid itself of the curse of incompetent, self-serving military interference in civil matters. Thailand, in contrast, has been denied the right to exorcize its demons demanding bountiful sacrifices to a status quo rooted firmly in the 19th century, with the obvious stagnation, the outright retardation, seen today not only economically but politically, socially and morally. It is hard to avoid the suspicion that those who doll themselves up in the fake dress of saviours are a major one of, if not in fact the root cause of Thailand's persistent failure to flourish as the Thai people, all of them, even Dr. Chartchai's cited construction workers, deserve.

Anand Panyarachun, who gifted Thailand the best constitution it has ever had after having himself been made Prime Minister as a result of yet another military coup against the Thai people's popular form of democratic government enshrined in yet another constitution trodden into the dirt, perhaps best summed it up one year ago in the Bangkok Post's "Ex-PM Anand says coups have retarded Thai democracy" (March 6, 2022). That article reports him bluntly acknowledging that "The succession of military coups, one after another, since the adoption of constitutional monarchy in 1932 has retarded Thailand's democratic development, leaving a legacy of failed administrations and corruption."

Such are the fruits of men like Prayut Chan-o-cha and those who are so misguided, or perhaps self-serving, or possibly both, who enable them to thrive at the expense of the Thai people's economic, social and political flourishing. It is a high price to pay for empty promises of reform, of fair economic growth, of unity, of equal justice for all, and of an end to corruption. 

Surely Thailand, the Thai people, deserve to move forward? 

 Felix Qui 

_______________________________

The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on February 27, 2023, under the title "Coups cost country" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2515719/the-pm2-5-finger

Might not be human

re: "Who will be AI's first billionaire?" (BP, Opinion, February 20, 2023) 

Dear editor,

Much as I enjoyed Tyler Cowen's reflections on whether the body of rapidly evolving AI entities present a tool more like social media or more akin to the Internet and printing press, that same accelerating evolution suggests that perhaps a fundamental assumption might betray a misplaced faith in humankind's continued accidental pre-eminence on the planet.

Need the person "Who will be AI's first billionaire" be a human being? Perhaps a machine will shortly show that they can also beat us in that arena of traditionally human, competitive game playing. There is, after all, more to being a person than necessarily, or merely, having human DNA in living biological cells forged by the original, perfectly mindless version of evolution that had held sway on Earth until very recently. 

 Felix Qui 

_______________________________

The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on February 23, 2023, under the title "Might not be human" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2513191/might-not-be-human

Twisted morality

re: "Activists decry Malaysian ban on LGBT books" (BP, February 16, 2023) 

Dear editor,

When Malaysia's Home Ministry bans books that treat same-sex love and gender uncertainty in positive ways on the grounds that "its objective was to 'prevent the spread of elements that are harmful to morality in the community'," it is important to clearly identify exactly what that morality being so protected by bad law is. It is the morality of traditional violence against LGBTQ people. It is the morality of hate and intolerance. It is the morality that condemns 5% of the Malaysian people to fearful hiding of their true selves. It is the morality that pushes parents to reject their LGBTQ children. It is, in short, a morality that rejects love, liberty, respect and decency in favour of hate, oppression, fear and injustice. 

 Felix Qui 

_______________________________

The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on February 18, 2023, under the title "Twisted morality" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2509369/no-shortcuts-in-war

Child abuse

re: "Mass haircut punishment spurs probe" (BP, February 9, 2023)  

Dear editor,

If someone not psychotically deranged but acting with calculated intent strolled down Silom Road with scissors in hand forcibly hacking people's hair, would she or he get off with a gentle probing? There is no significant difference with a teacher doing the same, save that the teacher was abusing children. 

Chopping bits off people without their consent, even hair, is an act of violence. And contrary to what the law-and-order squad might deem an extenuating circumstance, child abuse is not in fact less serious than violent abuse of adults. 

 Felix Qui 

_______________________________

The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on February 16, 2023, under the title "Child abuse" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2507769/lethal-speedways

Knee-jerk reaction

re: "Cops red-faced as scandals rock force" (BP, February 13, 2023) 

Dear editor,

It is sad to read yet again of "further blows to public confidence in the Royal Thai Police (RTP)," but the consequent "increased pressure for long overdue reform" is surely a most inappropriate response to the latest round of scandals, being seriously at odds with traditional Thai social norms. The Royal Thai Police have held a special place in Thai society for many generations, and that must be respected, not overthrown with knee jerk reactions to reform. 

The obvious solution to all such embarrassing truth speaking that comes from free speech is simply to criminalize all such rude speech. Problem solved: no more embarrassing news headlines, no more offensive social media commentary, and no more public stains on the immaculate reputation of a duly respected Thai institution. A few hot heads might need to be arrested and given hefty prison sentences strictly in accord with the law, but that is surely a small price to pay to maintain an unsullied image of which the nation can be proud. 

Have draconian punishments for truth seeking or speaking, let alone recklessly peaceful expression of honest opinion, ever failed to protect an unquestionably deserved reputation?  

 Felix Qui 

_______________________________

The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on February 15, 2023, under the title "Knee-jerk reaction" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2506844/an-economy-for-all

Repeated platitude

re: "Food for thought" (BP, Editorial, February 11, 2023) 

Dear editor, 

When the Bangkok Post's repeats the platitude that "the lese majeste laws ... are needed to protect the revered institution," reasonable people might again wonder why Thailand's revered institution needs such punitive protection from its own people when the same revered institutions of other nations thrive without any need of such draconian law, not even on the books, let alone in cruel practice. 

But let us leave that [perplexing alleged need for them] aside to consider another aspect of Thailand's internationally famous lese majeste laws that is equally food for thought. Namely, how do these laws comport with the venerated notion of karma that has been a vital element of Thai life and society for many generations?

Karma is indifferent to human made law. It cares only for actual justice, for genuine compassion, and for true merit. If, for example, a law authorized, or even commanded, the killing of animals by painful means, those strictly executing such a law would be piling up bad karma, with the resulting consequences for committing such acts of demerit. Either the bad law would either be no defence, or the bad karma would accrue to those responsible for such bad law or benefitting from it. Nor can the law miraculously convert the demerits of bad karma into immaculate good. 

Do Thailand's prevailing lese majeste laws and their application inflicting suffering to punish show compassion? Do they embody justice? Do they further or hobble the Buddhist goal of seeking right understanding through critical thinking? Are those who follow or are implicated in following those laws by arresting and imprisoning peaceful protestors merely for speaking honest opinion accruing good or bad karma? 

Karma has consequences. And unlike the Royal Thai Police or other law enforcement agencies that for a modest donation enable, for example, Chinese triads to thrive, the Red Bull police killer to evade justice, and vaping culprits to be extorted, karma cannot be bribed by rich shows of prayer and meditation, or tricked by gaudy mass ordinations on demand. Karma is not fooled by such public displays intended to buy off actual bad deeds, whether in strict accord with the law or not.

Karma dishes out only what is truly deserved. Does this perhaps explain why the Thai nation has failed to follow Taiwan and South Korea in flourishing so prosperously since all three nations began from similar economic and political starting points five decades ago? 

 Felix Qui 

_______________________________

The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on February 14, 2023, under the title "Repeated platitude" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2505789/chuvits-crusade

re: "There Is No Dignity in This Kind of America"

re: "There Is No Dignity in This Kind of America" (The New York Times, February 10, 2023)

What Americans need is a new Bill of Rights style amendment to the Constitution, one that enshrines at the highest level what the Supreme Court justices complicit in that decision describe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Care Organization as "a broader right to autonomy and to define one’s 'concept of existence'." 

As the justices note in the reasoning for the majority opinion there, it is the absence of any such explicit constitutional protection of the fundamental right to the autonomy required for a full-fleshed liberty that allowed them to overthrew Roe v. Wade. 

That same defect is apparent in the abuses that have been legally allowed against other groups in the US since its foundation, and that continue to legally violate the dreams of liberty to pursue happiness in their own lives of many Americans held hostage to the prejudices of powerful sects who care nothing for individual freedom.  

_______________________________

The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to The New York Times article.

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/10/opinion/trump-desantis-transgender-rights.html#commentsContainer&permid=123112855:123112855

Due for a poll

re: "Sympathy, but little support for protest" (BP, Opinion, February 6, 2023) 

Dear editor,

It would be hard to disagree with Veera Prateepchaikul, following exiled former Thammasat University lecturer Somsak Jeamteerasakul, that "the young pro-democracy activists Tantawan 'Tawan' Tuatulanon and Orawan 'Bam' Phuphong", who have suffered so much "should be commended for their steely hearts and resolve for their cause." And having brought the injustice, the rejection of compassion, and the refusal to allow the pursuit of right understanding, those most unBuddhist principles enshrined in its law, to the notice of the Thai nation, these courageous young women can now gracefully and with honour end their hunger strike for the sake of their nation. 

It is less clear, is down right murky in fact, whether Veera is right that support for their cause has in fact dwindled among the Thai people. The only way to reliably make any statement about what a people might support, revere, have faith in, or believe about anything, whether an issue, an institution, a cause, or a person, is to run a few well-designed and properly conducted polls to measure public opinion. That is why politicians care very much about polls. For all their imperfections and weaknesses, opinion polls remain the only reliable indicator of how a nation or any demographic within it feels. In the absence of such solid statistical evidence that puts explicit percentages on the ranges of opinion, any claim about what the Thai people feel about anything is at best uninformed wishful thinking that likely reflects nothing so much as the agenda of the people making such claims absent validly obtained percentages.

Veera cited not a single poll or lower percentage for his claims about the extent of public support for the cause for which the equally patriotic Tantawan Tuatulanon and Orawan Phuphong have followed the example set by Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela among others in using hunger strikes and willingly embracing unjust imprisonment in strict accord with bad law. That people might not turn out for a protest because of rising costs of living or less media notice, does not entail that there does not also exist a large groundswell of solid support. Whatever the percentages might be, the Thai people deserve to know what they themselves think. Policy makers should care very much to know what the nation feels to a percentage point.

If it is to be claimed, as Veera does, that support has dwindled, at the very least two opinion polls on the issue must have been done: an earlier one and a later one. To dispel the prevailing unknowing on too many matters of national importance, not least how the Thai nation feels about the intimately related causes for which these young women and the 1,890 other persecuted Thais who "have faced charges for political participation and expression since the beginning of the Free Youth pro-democracy protests in July 2020", a series of polls is urgently needed. 

Will those polls be done to shed some much needed light, or will forced darkness continue to rule?

 Felix Qui  

_______________________________

The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on February 8, 2023, under the title "Due for a poll" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2501546/due-for-a-poll

Review vape ban

re: "Actress' vaping case sparks debate" (BP, February 3, 2023) 

Dear editor,

Dr Prakit Vathesatogkit, executive secretary of the Action on Smoking and Health Foundation is doubtless sincere in his convictions. He is also wrong in his conclusion that Thailand is "on the right track by banning e-cigarettes." Digital Economy and Society (DES) Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn is right that vaping should be legalized for adults.

That there are very likely or most certainly health risks to vaping, or any other product that they enjoy using, is not a sufficient reason to ban it for adults. It should be fully legal for adults and regulated the same way alcohol, cigarettes and the host of other unhealthy lifestyle choices are regulated. 

Such legalization would be a serious hit to the income streams of those esteemed members of the Royal Thai Police about whom we have read so much in recent weeks, as usual. It is not, however, obvious that such a reduction in incitement to extortion and other corruption is so terribly undesirable a collateral outcome of just law.  

 Felix Qui 

_______________________________

The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on February 7, 2023, under the title "Review vape ban" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2499781/review-vape-ban

Censor it all

re: "Sushi conveyor belt pranks spark outrage in Japan" (BP, February 3, 2023) 

Dear editor,

The unprovoked acts of "sushi terrorism" reported in "Sushi conveyor belt pranks spark outrage in Japan" (Bangkok Post, February 3) are disturbing. They are clearly the latest symptom of degenerate modern literature being allowed into the hands of innocent children. In fairness to Mr. Palahniuk's Tyler Durden as immortalized in "Fight Club", whose cultural malaise was spread even further by Brad Pitt bringing him so passionately to life in the Hollywood (what else?) adaptation bearing the same title, it must be conceded that that corrupting text restricted the food terrorism to adding bodily outputs strictly to hi-so food and only in strict privacy behind closed doors, never under cameras for uploading to TikTok.

But perhaps Japanese youth have been corrupted by other sources of degeneracy spread by NetFlix and its like. How many times in "The Big Bang Theory" alone do innocent viewers encounter perfectly clear references to such food terrorism as when, to cite but one instance, Cheesecake waitress Penny, after a tiff with him, hands Dr. Cooper his meal with the ominous imperative: "Eat it! I dare you"? 

At least with Thailand's abundant street food, you can pretty much see what's going on before the freshly prepared and typically tasty khaokha mu or bowl of noodles is handed to you.

Those religiously inspired American Republicans intent on protecting youth are plainly right: a lot more books, series and films need to be banned to protect innocent youth from mortal corruption that can only lead to the further collapse of civilization as we know it should Trump not win the next election, or locally, should PM Prayut Chan-o-cha not be returned to complete his unspeakably successful road map for the Thai nation through a moral rebirth into true righteousness. 

Let us learn from Japan's experience before it is too late.  

_______________________________

The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on January 5, 2023, under the title "Censor it all" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2499244/legalise-vaping

re: "How ChatGPT Kicked Off an A.I. Arms Race"

re: "How ChatGPT Kicked Off an A.I. Arms Race" (The New York Times, February 3, 2023)

Relax. 

Whatever it achieves or does not, ChatGPT and other emerging AIs evolving rapidly are but the latest iteration of evolution here on Earth. Driven by the inexorable laws of physics largely yet unknown to us, that ongoing process of almost 14 billion years will not be subverted by the emergent properties of anything we create, just as we never have or could transcend nature. 

But it's certainly an exciting time for the collections of rule-bound atoms that are us to be observing the wonders of other such collections of atoms being birthed, who probably can't themselves yet wonder at or be excited by it all.  

_______________________________

The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to The New York Times article.

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/technology/chatgpt-openai-artificial-intelligence.html#commentsContainer&permid=122993571:122993571