OPINION

Restrains credulity

Re: "Kid car seats mandatory from Sept 5," (BP, May 9).

Why is such importance placed on the need to fit restraint seats in the back of cars when it is widely accepted that two or three toddlers can be wedged between adults on a motorbike? In the event of a collision, the toddlers will be crushed by the adults and probably die whilst the adults would live -- but how would they live the rest of their lives?

Motorcycle safety laws are generally disregarded and ignored so why do they think this new car safety law will be any different?

Cost of living

Re: "Kid car seats mandatory from Sept 5," (BP, May 9).

The issue about requiring children to use restraints when in a car exposes a real problem that nobody wants to touch. That is the conditioning that money is more important than human life.

For a parent to state, "I cannot afford a child seat" and this to be true would mean they probably cannot afford a child at all. Since this is not true, it usually means they do not want to adjust their budget to do so. If you stopped buying beer, playing the lottery and having a smart phone there probably would be enough to buy a seat. Then pass them around the community after usage like most places.

If the parents are truly destitute, then have the government issue one. Not a "substitute" of cushions but a properly vetted seat! In my country, you cannot even leave the hospital after delivering a baby without proving you have a car seat.

One way to avoid purchasing a car seat would be to just use a motorcycle. And we all know this will indeed happen -- then what will the child fatality rate be?

Too much information

Re: "Google propaganda," (PostBag, May 13).

Is Michael Setter for real in his strident denunciation of Google? My own history of recent searches includes: make small frog farm Thailand; biography Putin; butter chicken recipes; who chooses electors in USA elections; name drummer band Cream 1960s; oldest working porn actress; and, yes, critical race theory.

What power Google has to "propagandise" me or rob me of "thought and emotion" on such topics is a mystery. Can it be that Google's influence is so subtle and insidious that I'm unaware of it as Michael Setter claims?

I suspect that the real problem with Google for Mr Setter is not that it is an Orwellian propaganda machine but rather that it gives too much information, a lot of which encourages what he sees as dangerous liberal thinking which runs counter to his own rigid prejudices.

Turkish delight

Re: "Finland poised for Nato membership as Ukraine war crimps Russian gas," (BP, May 12).

I am truly delighted that the Turkish president Erdogan is objecting to Sweden and Finland joining Nato. Why would those two countries want to add to what is already the biggest bloody mess since WW2. What would they with their miniscule armies and miniature populations, yet massive territories to defend, contribute? They have been happily neutral for decades and suddenly, under pressure from the USA and Boris Johnson they want to destroy the perfectly good status quo.

I wonder what Greta Thunberg and her young compatriots are saying about this craziness? I have seen them strongly protesting!

It is about time this nonsense came to an end. I am not a fan of Erdogan, but this time I will pronounce: "Hail Recep and hallelujah to common sense."

Stop the war. Stop Nato expansion, it is big enough. Because soon even the Eskimos, who do not even have a word for war will, under pressure and offered a carrot from the White House, queue to join the alliance.

Well done Erdogan! Let's have more leaders with common sense. Concentrate on saving the planet instead.

Searching questions

Re: "Thinking cap," (PostBag, May 8), "Plugging the gap," (PostBag, May 12) and "Google propaganda," (PostBag, May 13).

I believe Mr Praditsmanont should give his fellow Thai a break.

After all, the former only came to the conclusion that "pulled the plug" means to let the water out free, after consulting with an "English" speaker. My bet is that this person is probably not even a native English speaker, but rather someone from a European country.

Perhaps the aforementioned Thai should have looked up the meaning of the phrase on a search engine, as suggested by the other Thai writer; nonetheless, it has been my experience that search engines often do not give the true meaning of English idioms or slang, if at all.

And, as Michael Setter notes, instead of only being conduits of objective knowledge, search engines are in fact the primary engines of human propaganda now.