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gobbledonk

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Posts posted by gobbledonk

  1. Watching a report tonight on the lengths Mossad are going to in ensuring that Iran don't develop a working nuke, one of the Americans they interviewed made the point that if Israel goes to war with Iran, the US is automatically at war with Iran and its allies. A former head of Mossad claimed that any scenario of missiles being rained on Israel from Gaza/Syria/wherever had to be better than the prospect of the regime in Iran have a nuclear weapon. They also interviewed a former General from Iran's Revolutionary Guard and his prognosis was bleak - 'They (the regime) dont care about Iran, and Mutually Assured Destruction wont work because they believe they are the "chosen ones"'.

     

    The 'fanatic with a nuke' concept is nothing new, but I wouldnt want to be the guy sitting around a table with the Joint Chiefs in 2013 trying to work out what to do next when Israel throws down with its neighbours.

  2. Are you talking about Hun Sen here? It's likely to be awhile before he exits. Judging by the reports of the offspring of the current rulers, I expect the next generation will be even worse. They make the Chalerm kids look like boyscouts. OK maybe that exaggerates it a bit, but they're about the same, and I'd be surprised if Hun Sen didn't pull strings to get his own to stay in power. Just the kind of guy he is, obviously.

     

    As appalling as that seems, at least it implies that any transition of power will be peaceful. The Cambodian people may be no better off with the new 'boss', but that has to be better than another civil war. I guess time will tell.

  3. I was surprised to see the Palace still intact when I arrived in PP in 2010 - I thought that the events of the last 40 or so years would have seen it turned into an administrative building in the same fashion as many of the vestiges of French colonial occupation. My guide didnt proffer an opinion on the King, one way or the other, and I left it there. She would have been old enough to remember tanks firing on the streets of Pnomh Penh - I still shake my head that the madness went on for so long. The guy with the biggest gun won the day, and he's still there - let's hope his exit sees a smooth transition of power.

  4. My link

     

    King Norodom Sihanouk dead at 89.

     

    Norodom Sihanouk, the former Cambodian king who was a key figure through decades of upheaval, has died.

     

    The former king died at a hospital in the Chinese capital, Beijing, after having a heart attack. He had been in poor health for several years.

     

    Sihanouk, who was 89, came to the throne in 1941 and led Cambodia to independence from France in 1953.

     

    Despite long periods of exile and his abdication in 2004 due to ill health, he remained an influential figure.

     

    Sihanouk abdicated in 2004 in favour of his son, King Norodom Sihamoni.

     

    "His death was a great loss to Cambodia," said his assistant and relative Prince Sisowath Thomico. "King Sihanouk did not belong to his family, he belonged to Cambodia and to history."

     

    His body is expected to be returned to Cambodia for an official funeral at the royal palace in Phnom Penh. King Sihamoni is flying to Beijing to accompany the late king home, a Cambodian government spokesman said.

     

    A statement from China's foreign ministry hailed Sihanouk as a "great friend of the Chinese people".

  5. Yongda Huang Harris ? What kind of fucked up combo is that ?

     

    Just watching a lefty doco on the early months of the Obama administration and the absolute shitfight they inherited from GWB and his band of merry men. Apparently Biden was the only one in the room calling for Obama to think long and hard about withdrawing from Afghanistan - the President was railroaded by the Brass and Clinton into sending more troops. Biden was also slammed for getting into a shouting match with Karzai on his first official trip to Afghanistan as VP, and I know he cops plenty from comedians in the US, but I believe history will prove that he was right about Afghanistan. Sending more soldiers into an unwinnable conflict makes zero sense to me.

  6. At least 50% of the clients of sex workers in Bangkok are young, hot guys in their 20s with washboard abs, who could easily get laid by one of the flabby, doughy cunt bitches their age in the West...

     

     

     

    Doughy cunt bitches, eh ? Nothing mean spirited there. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about said bitches, but then I don't spent a lot of time thinking about hot young guys with washboard abs having sex, either. The article was clearly a piss take - I probably wouldn't let it ruin my year.

  7. Sad to see those last two photos, Munchy. Cant say that I spent a lot of time in either bar, but it was obvious to anyone who walked into either than a lot of love (aka money) had been thrown at each of them. I did think the old ladyboy theatre was an odd choice for a brand new sports bar, but I assume the owners were given a killer deal on the rent.

  8. Given what you have to negotiate these days on the lower part of Sukhumvit I think 22 is relatively pleasant. In so far as any inner city red light slum tourist attraction ever could be. I will be strolling that very soi this coming Friday, er tomorrow.

     

    I get tired of the constant 'massaaaage ?' whiners as I walk down 22 anytime after midday. The irony, or not, is that the genuine massage places - the big ones where you can see people being massaged from the street - dont have anyone outside touting for them. Kinda obvious that the others are rub-and-tug/'special' massage shops. Its still a long ways better than Soi 4 - rarely see anything resembling flower girls or those hideous women who try to sell you the wooden frogs and silly hats. I've been an outspoken defender of Soi 4 for the last few years, but the more I think about it the more I can see why so many here loathe the place. Its a circus, pure and simple.

  9. Other than having to dodge them on the narrow footpaths, I've never had a problem with the Indians - or Arabs - that stay in the big hotels in and around Soi 22. Didn't enjoy one of the little buggers trying to lowball one of the Filis I was with in KL last year, but he scurried off when he realised she wasnt interested in negotiating. KL isnt the first place I'd go if I was looking for cheap sex.

  10. HT, your trip report will be the most current and comprehensive of anything I've seen on that part of the world. Sadly, the photos I've seen of AC leave me cold - might be very different inside the clubs etc. The pool parties look OK, but I dont know how often that happens.

  11. Sneer at you every time you glance at a Thai girl...

     

    It has never bothered me - confronted an Australian girl openly staring at me with my Tilac in a Pattaya baht bus back in 2002, and we ended up laughing about the whole thing. It could have gone the other way, but I sensed that she wasnt that drunk : either way, I don't just sit there and take it. The women here have become even more feral in the last 10 years - particularly where alcohol is concerned. Thankfully, I wont have to put up with them much longer.

  12. Toto ? Jesus, next you'll be digging up Asterix and other characters that Hollywood is yet to dredge from the bowels of the comic universe. :neener:

     

    asterix-obelix.gif

     

    As a kid, I read everything I could get my hands on, including an Asterix comic in French. That was relatively easy to digest compared to my copy of Jane Eyre - written entirely in Scottish Gaelic. There is a point where cutting the alpabet back to 18 letters becomes counter-productive IMO .....

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic#Common_words_and_phrases_with_Irish_and_Manx_equivalents

  13. I've had this discussion with my sister, the only surviving relative I give a crap about and I think she finally understands. Its confronting, and five years ago I probably would have clung to the same entrenched Catholic view she holds. Now I don't even bat an eyelid when someone punches their own ticket - considerably better outcome than freaks like the Batman killer taking their 'pain' out on others.

  14. He had inoperable Brain Cancer hence the reason he decided to end it.

     

    Now if I was to find myself in such a predicament I would want to end it, I am all for euthanasia but I would not jump from a bridge.

     

    Agree - I've said it before, but the Whitney Houston method has to be a whole lot less painful and they don't have to send divers in after the body. Just leave a note apologizing to the hotel staff - simple.

  15. Top Gun director Tony Scott (Ridley Scott's brother) dead at 68 - apparent suicide. I've said it before, but its not just the Pattaya skydiving team that elects to check out after a particularly nasty midlife crisis.

     

    My link

     

    TOP Gun director Tony Scott has jumped to his death in California.

    The LA County coroner’s office confirmed that the 68-year-old scaled and jumped off the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro at around 12.30pm on Sunday.

     

    His body was retrieved from the water by the police and coast guard.

    Scott's death was being investigated as a suicide, Los Angeles County Coroner's Lt. Joe Bale said.

     

    Police confirmed that several witness saw Scott jump, apparently without hesitation.

     

    Several people called 911 around 12.35pm to report that someone had jumped from the bridge spanning San Pedro and Terminal Island in Los Angeles, according to Los Angeles police Lt Tim Nordquist.

     

    A dive team with Los Angeles Port Police pulled the body from the murky water several hours later, Nordquist said.

     

    Scott's body was taken to a dock in Wilmington and turned over to the county coroner's office.

    One lane of the eastbound side of the bridge was closed to traffic during the investigation.

     

    A suicide note was found in his office and another note in his black Toyota Prius, which was parked on one of the eastbound lanes of the bridge.

  16. The survival rate for pancreatic cancer is like 5% or so. It's a terrible way to go...

     

    Yep - I'd be looking to make that 4.99999999% the day I got the diagnosis. They reckon 'old age isnt for wimps' - I think that goes double for surviving cancer.

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