Flashing the V
Re: "I am not a debater", (InQuote, April 4).
If he can stay awake, someone should advise Big Pom to watch Darkest Hour, starring the ever-excellent Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill during the early years of the Blitz. He would subsequently learn lessons about how to govern a country judiciously in troubled times and how to flash the V for Victory sign properly, although I doubt his secretary(ies) would have the courage to tell him.
But this is unlikely, so I will continue to enjoy observing his signals to admirers to get stuffed (bowdlerised version) as well as the rest of the country during this whole ghastly process.
Bill Renoise
Reacting to threats
Re: "Avoid nuclear war", (PostBag, April 3).
Jason A Jellison wrote, "even a lousy deal between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents would be far better than risking nuclear war".
The question is, where does this all stop? All a belligerent nuclear power would have to do would be to start a dispute with a non-nuclear-armed country, make threatening nuclear noises, and it would have your correspondent's approval for a lousy deal in its favour since this would always be better than "risking nuclear war".
This is the problem the West faces with Russia: if Putin wins by his nuclear threat, why will he ever stop? Maybe we should allow him to recover the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe? Why not Western Europe -- excluding France and the UK, of course, since they are nuclear armed -- as well?
Be careful -- self-interest may lead a different US administration to make this very calculation as they hand the keys to Europe to Putin.
Michael Winckless
Stuck in TV limbo
I have been a subscriber to TRUE Vision for over a decade. This has given me a front-row seat at the deterioration of a once viable source for cable viewing. I've watched the prime movie sources replaced with Film 1, Film 2 and Movie hits. Fox Sports is long gone and the duplication of channels across all categories is getting worse. Add to that the proliferation of Chinese and Korean broadcasts and this poor, old American expat is out in the cold.
But the loss of almost all American sports programming is the worst. Previously we lost Nascar racing, Major League Baseball and all NCAA (college) sports. We can watch reruns of the MLB Classic series, the Miami Open, and, just recently, last year's NFL football games. And this week, we were denied one of the greatest NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments in history and the opening of the US Major League Baseball Season. I know my small voice is meaningless to this multi-billion-baht corporation with tens of thousands of lap dog subscribers, but sometimes one small voice can make a difference. For reference, my costs for ESPN, Hulu, Netflix, Disney, Prime Video and HBO are less than what I pay for my Gold service from TRUE. Thank god for VPNs.
Fred Prager
Backing elephants
Re: "Be kind to elephants", (PostBag, April 1).
Thank you, Nuntanit Bumrungsap, for bringing more attention by writing letters that address the barbarity of elephant riding. In Chiang Mai, many agencies that promote elephant tourism now have signs reading: "No Riding". Our message is getting out there and that is why no amount of insults or ridicule will ever stop me from fighting for justice.
Eric Bahrt
