Letters

people at risk?

Editor,

Israeli air strikes targeting Hezbollah terrorists, tragically killed more than 50 civilians in Lebanon.

But why does Hezbollah deliberately put these innocents at risk, by firing their own deadly missiles from civilian apartment houses, schools, mosques and hospitals? And let’s remember this: when Israeli missiles mistakenly injure the innocent, their nation mourns; when Hezbollah’s rockets maim Israeli children, they dance in the streets.

Scott Abramson

San Mateo

Mel is not to blame

Editor,

Poor Mel Gibson. It wasn’t his fault. The remarks he made were prompted by the alcohol he drank, so it’s really the fault of the alcohol distillers.

But, I wonder if Mel has heard of the saying "IN VINO VERITAS.” If I recollect, that means "In Wine The Truth.”

Jack Haber

San Mateo

Cease-fire in Lebanon?

Editor,

Mike Caggiano’s Aug. 3 letter "Peace in Lebanon?” in the Daily Journal, needs this simple rebuttal. There can’t be a meaningful cease-fire in Lebanon until there are conditions acceptable to both side of the conflict. When Congress recently passed a resolution against Hezbollah, it was because Hezbollah is a terrorist organization.

AIPAC is a lobby for Israel, and lobbying is part of our democratic system of government in the United States.

Norman Licht

San Carlos

Doctor charged in suicide

Editor,

First, I would like to thank you for running this story in The Daily Journal as it does a fine job of revealing to the public the general character of psychiatry ("Doctor charged in suicide” in the Aug. 3 edition of the Daily Journal).

Psychiatrist Christian Hageseth’s conduct is typical of psychiatrists: They carelessly prescribe mind-altering drugs without a clue as to what these drugs address. In Hageseth’s case, he did not even possess the authority to do so.

The fact that he did anyway reveals psychiatry’s disposition: "Only we understand mental illness. Only we can treat it. We are above the law.”

Then, when the patient dies or commits suicide, the psychiatrist insists it has nothing to do with him. Psychiatrists have no faintest sense of responsibility.

In the mid-90s, Dr. Hageseth started a sexual relationship with a former patient within a year of ending the doctor-patient relationship. The woman left her husband for Hageseth.

The ex-husband alleged that Hageseth had counseled the woman to leave him. A Colorado jury awarded the man over $215,000 in damages in 1998.

As is obvious to anyone who cares to observe, psychiatrists can’t treat mental illness. But they can expedite suicide. They can make the depressed more depressed. They can break up the homes they are hired to reunify.

They ruin lives.

Hageseth is by no means an isolated case of a predatory psychiatrist. There have been hundreds of them who left a trail of broken homes and broken lives.

San Mateo County in California has before them an opportunity to spare the public from further harm and to set an example on several counts. The county has my support and my blessings.

Steve Wagner

Los Angeles

The letter writer is the director of litigation and prosecution for the Citizens Commission on Human Rights.

Prescription

drugs over Internet?

Editor,

Regarding the Colorado doctor who prescribed drugs for a patient over the Internet, clearly, this should not be allowed ("Doctor charged in suicide” in the Aug. 3 edition of the Daily Journal).

One can only imagine how the illicit drug trade would benefit from this.

George Harrison

Sunnyvale

Proportionality

is not the issue

Editor,

Israel is accused of having a disproportionate response to the abduction of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah across its international border with Lebanon.

This is yet another twisted approach that Islamic fascists are employing to back up their hackneyed modus operandi, i.e. We will kill you and if you kill us back, we will kill you more.

Consider that if, within hours of taking Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the Hezbollah leadership realized it had made a mistake and returned them unharmed. Would Israel have flattened Hezbollah villages being used by their operatives for cover?

Would it have inserted ten thousand troops into the South on a search and destroy mission? Of course not.

Consider that if the so-called government of Lebanon, which proudly includes representatives of Hezbollah, acted like a real democracy, took a majority vote, and told the Hezbollah representatives to return Goldwasser and Regev. Would Israel have taken action against the country of Lebanon and its vital infrastructure? Of course not.

The fact is that the so-called Lebanese government is in cahoots with Hezbollah up to their eyeballs. They give aid and comfort to this vicious Iran-sponsored group, which cynically tries to appear human by providing social services to their supporters while they amass tens of thousands of rockets for the exclusive purpose of killing as many Israeli civilians as they can.

Lebanon actively supports Hezbollah by allowing them to control the southern part of their country. How can any Lebanese governmental official look anyone in the eye and say it’s out of their hands when UN resolution 1559 told them the opposite? And how can any sane person actually believe this nonsense?

I feel sympathy for the innocent victims. But please don’t insult your own intelligence by thinking that the Lebanese government is merely a victim too, nor that Lebanon deserves better until it is ready to behave like a real country instead of like another Afghanistan under the benevolent influence of the Taliban.

Desmond Tuck

San Mateo

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