Readers of the Star-Advertiser’s online edition can respond to stories posted there. The following are some of those. Instead of names, pseudonyms are generally used online. They have been removed.

"Campaigns reset in wake of top court’s ruling on rail," Star-Advertiser, Sept. 17:

» I don’t really need to hear what Kirk Caldwell has to say. I know what the guy will say: anything he thinks we want to hear so that he will be elected.

» With Ben Cayetano’s phony BRT solution exposed for what it is, he is only left with using half truths and misleading lies to attack rail.

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"City to host hearings on rules for commercial activity at parks," Star-Advertiser, Sept. 17:

» As I recall, Parks Director Gary Cabato warned the City Council, when they were pushing this bill, that these types of unintended consequences were going to occur. I don’t like Mayor Peter Carlisle, but he was right on this one and the Council veto override was a result of the arrogance of City Councilman Ikaika Anderson.

» I’m glad that our lawmakers did a thorough job of reviewing legislation before passing it. (smiley face) This shows how messed up the system is.

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"Occupy Honolulu takes new name," Star-Advertiser, Sept. 18:

» They are nothing more than glorified homeless. They have accomplished absolutely nothing here (or elsewhere) and the only ones they have caused any annoyance or inconvenience to are the so-called "99%" they claim to be working on behalf of. Pack your bags and get out of our park!.

» They’re not homeless. They are educated and just have a lot of time on their hands.

» The new name "(de)Occupy Honolulu" was always the name based on input from kanaka maoli and others at the original general assemblies in October 2011. The community should also know that the anti-GMO actions were part of a broad coalition of anti-GMO groups including, but not limited to, (de)Occupy Honolulu. Even with accurate reporting, I don’t suppose everyone in our community would support (de)Occupy Honolulu’s insistence on the separation of corporation and state, but at least make sure you have the facts straight.

» (de)Occupy Honolulu is a very appropriate name for them. That’s what they should do — (de)Occupy Honolulu.

» How about sticking your head in the sand and pretending there is nothing wrong with the world? At least the (de)Occupy people are trying to make the world a better place.

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"Past troubles prevent more benches on Fort Street Mall," Star-Advertiser, Sept. 18:

» I used to work downtown, and you couldn’t pay me to sit on any public bench in that area.

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"Lack of support in Council shelves ‘no-kill’ animal bill," Star-Advertiser, Sept. 19:

» City Councilman Tom Berg has a lot of good ideas but this is a nonsense bill. The Hawaiian Humane Society does not euthanize animals because it wants to. It is more cruel to keep them alive without proper food and care. The city needs to look at irresponsible pet owners who don’t neuter their animals and cause this glut of unwanted animals.

» Humane Society President Pam Burns should sacrifice some of her pay and set her sights on expanding the facility. She boasts of how long she has been there, yet the changes are minimal, showing little signs of expansion or improvement.

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"Eat local," Star-Advertiser, Sept. 19:

» You’d think that because the food produced locally, it’ll be less expensive, since there’s no shipping involved, but that’s not the case. Local farmers need to think twice before expecting locals to buy local.

» If local businesses want us local consumers to buy their products, they should price their products more competitively. As I see it, most businesses in Hawaii, and that includes farmers and manufacturers of food products, price their items too high. Thus my saying, "Buy local, go broke!"

» Don’t forget, even if the end result item is not shipped in, much of the stuff it takes to grow it is — feed, fuel, fertilizer and sometimes labor. Many are working hard to develop local replacements for inputs from off island but until then …

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"Single lane of Wahiawa bridge will open to morning traffic," Star-Advertiser, Sept. 19:

» This is typical of state Department of Transportation engineers: Start a project and when problems come up, stop everything and figure out a solution. This would never happen in the private sector. This is one reason why the state gets blamed for poor performance.

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"Muslims hurt own reputation with violence, leader says," Star-Advertiser, Sept. 20:

» Abdul-Karim Khan, Islamic history professor at Leeward Community College, agreed that "demonstrating peacefully is anybody’s right but if you damage anything or kill anyone, it is against Islam and the Quran." This broad statement implying universal peaceful coexistence and never doing any violence is simply not borne out by the worldwide interpretation and practices of Islam. For example, the oppression of women condoned by the Sharia shows its ugly face in many Muslim countries. Is he speaking out against that? I appreciate his pacifist view of life. But this is not the mainstream view in the very intolerant Muslim countries of the world. The freedom of speech he is allowed to exercise in our country is simply not tolerated — in fact, would be viewed as blasphemy — in many areas of the world.

» Nice to see someone of Muslim faith speaking out against this extremist violence. From the little I know about Islam, Mohammed preached extreme tolerance and compassion and demonstrated that in his own life. I wonder how much the modern "jihadist" viewpoint has contaminated the Muslim faith today.