StoneSoup

All the small cults are creepy and mockable - but none of them are an existential threat to the continued existence of civilization. Islam is such a threat. All the western givernments are tripping over themselves, to assure the Islamic world that there is no "War on Islam". Meanwhile, the Islamicist barbarians are happily waging a war of conquest on the west - the Dar Al Hab. 50 years from now, surviving westerners are all going to be asking "WTF were the civilized nations of the world THINKING back at the turn of the century, to have allowed the Islamic pestilence to spread, and destroy civilization???" SS

'Good on her. 'Fairly creepy approach - but Islam is a pestilance that needs to be eradicated off the planet. There is no greater threat to the advance of human civilization. Cheers! SS

I don't know, but over at Thaivisa.com, the visa sub-forum reminds me of the after-effects of smashing a hornet's nest with a golf club. It's enterrtaining to watch the various dodgy individuals trying to rationalize their importance to Thailand. My prediction: Border Immigration Officers will reap a windfall in bribes, word will get out about which Border crossings can be negoiated with currency, a few Border Immigration officails will eventually get busted, after one of their past "clients" commits some atrocity in Thailand, and then - over time - enforcement of the rule will simply fade away. But - the next 6-9 months will be tough on "dodgy guys". Cheers! SS

It is all Kabuki dancing - because it is all really about the 800 pound gorilla that roams in the background. It is all about who is on top when a particular card is played. There will never be steady-state peace as long as either side feels itself sitting at a disadvantage, going into the final hand of that game. So - all of the the present machinations are just tactical jockeying and posturing - with no chance that they actually represent a search for long-term answers. Probably, before it is all over, the majority of the population - of Bangkok, at least - will be begging for the military to take over, just to end the mob rule by extremist clowns on both sides. Cheers! SS

Unisex toilets, and stripping the Thai language of its gender-specific articles of speech. Those are certainly compelling issues, almost guaranteed to attract a decisive portion of the population to join this party. Yeah, right, any day now ......... SS

Organizing a new major party, big enough to significantly influence the formation of a new government, would require a level of organizing - and associated funding - that simply cannot be assembled in Thailand. There are only two significantly funded entities - all the other parties are just opportunistic splinters off the main branches, hoping to be able to bargain for pet causes as part of joining a coalition to form a government. But - the base of the coalition is always one of the "big two". The only possible alternative - that could generate the necessary funds - would be a group such as those behind the Dhammakaya Temple - and their "cult-like" character does not seem sufficiently mainstream to gain the necessary traction. Basically, any major political force needs a great leader, and massive funding. I just cannot see those two prerequisites evolving spontaneously, independent of the existing parties. Cheers! SS

The choices are: 1. Military coup - The military probably offers the most favorable ratio of superior competency to (relatively) low corruption - with some concept of "public service". 2. Civil war - This is probably what the country really needs, but that answer is not PC - let the "last man standing" create the next government 3. Partition of the country - The north will fall back into a third-world scenario 4. The Status Quo - See-saw one-up-manship, a slow-festering ulcer, but with the deck stacked in favor of the entrenched elites None of those solutions look very appealing. By default, Thailand remains in Situation #4 - and the longer that scenario goes on, the eventual resolution by one (or more) of the other three "solution" will be that much more bitter. It is entirely possible that Thailand will go from Choice (Status) #4, to Choice #2, to Choice #1, to Choice #3. Fun for everyone in that sequence. In classical geopolitics, the answer is Wild Card Solution #5 - Demonize a neighbor (Cambodia?), and get everyone to subordinate their "minor" grievances to the necessity of joining forces to overcome the "existential threat" from foreign invaders. Unfortunately, Thailand is surrounded by weak neighbors - and it would be hard to inflate any of them up to be a credible threat to the Thai Nation. Drip, drip, drip ......... Cheers! SS

It would be nice to see the US Marines and the UK SAS apply the "General Pershing" approach toward "pacifying" the local Muslim barbarians: http://cdn.motinetwork.net/demotivationalposters.net/image/demotivational-poster/0905/general-pershing-demotivational-poster-1243380359.jpg Cheers! SS

The blouses are too short, showing off too much flesh?????? Do they mean that the sleeves show too much elbow? Or - that it is excessive that four cm of throat are revelaed by the "plunging" neckline????? The picture does not seem to match the text.

For some reason the lyrics reminded me of a lot of realationships in Bangkok: "...playin' detective,wanna' know it, too Goin' through my pockets, searchin' for clues Trying to follow me, you and the desperate crew The end of this relationship was long overdue Now what you did was cute, girl' you spent the loot Easy on the tears, oops, 'mind you'll soil the suit Do yourself a favor, and find a new recruit And don't take it personal. because you got the boot..." http://youtu.be/NTdz0zRAWEM

Well, it would be the height of folly to try to argue: "Climate is absiolutely static, and unchanging". So - I am very comfortable with the idea that climate is a dynamic function - always in a state of flux. As far as man having any significant effect on global climate, that idea is total rubbish. Here is my screed: CO2 is plant food. Every Kudzu vine, every buttercup, and every Redwood - every piece of wood, every blade of grass, every cluster of hops, every lump of charcoal, every pinecone, every baseball bat, cricket bat, thatched roof, watermelon, every sheet of paper in every book ever printed, every railroad tie, every cotton print dress, every linen tablecloth - is composed of carbon that was extracted from airborne CO2 via photosynthesis of plants. Watch and learn: If you want to lower CO2 in the atmosphere, just plant more trees – or any other kind of plants. If the globe is warming up due to excess CO2 in the atmosphere (which seems unlikely to me), then that should mean more plant growth - which can ONLY occur by extracting more carbon from the atmosphere. So - the system has to be automatically self-correcting. That’s the whole point. Human beings - like every other animal - exhale CO2 - which becomes plant food, which is essential to all plant life. Plants take in CO2, perform photosynthesis, and then “exhale†the oxygen that is the waste product of their metabolism. It is an eternal and wonderful exchange .… and then us animals eat the plants – Hah!. Cut a cross-section through the earth. Then - depict the thickness of the extremely thin (relative to the diameter of the earth) layer that holds all oceans, the earth's crust, and the entire atmosphere. You quickly see that everything we think of as the world around us is just a thin surface infestation of the much larger earth. That thin surface infestation is - literally - sandwiched in-between an extremely hot, mostly molten orb, and a very, very cold surrounding vacuum of space. It is the height of hubris for men to think that anything they can do within that thin surface encrustation could significantly change the temperature within that region - in comparison to the immense hot and cold forces that surround it. And - that is before you even consider the Sun. If you took all the human beings alive on earth, and you gave each person one square meter of space to stand in, every single one of seven billion humans could stand on the island of Borneo - with hundreds of thousands of square meters left over. Humans are trivial players at global level. If only there were some... natural explanation for falling and rising temperatures. Such a hypothetical source of warming would have to be massive, however. On the order of magnitude of our own Sun. Cheers, SS

'Gotta get the soldiers away from the blockades set up to prevent Red terrorists from other parts of Thailand from storminhg Bangkok - maybe sacking and burning the city down AGAIN. Time to get the police enablers into place, to clear the way for the barbarian hordes. Just to be fair - Suthep needs to be awarded an eternal dirt nap at the earliest opportunity, He's basically an alternate universe version of Chalerm - who would also be of better service to mankind if he permanently assumed room temperature. Hey - today was Dipangkorn's birthday !!!!! Cheers! SS

This is a very bad harbinger. First, if you are negative toward the monarchy, you are liable to prosecution for lese majeste - and that is de rigeuer. OK. Now, if you are simply negative toward the lese majeste law, you are ....... subject to summary execution????????? OK ????? What is next? If you are negative towarad the summary execution of anti- lese-majeste "rubbish" - you are yourself in mortal peril???? OK??????? Where does that progession end? I state that I have no personal opinion ..... I am just asking retorically.... I think of the movie Farenheit 451 - when character Guy Montag inquires of his peers (I'm paraphrasing) "Wasn't there a time when the job of firemen was to PUT OUT FIRES???" - and his comrades ridicule him. Please do not answer - just think. Cheers! SS

This must mean that we need to get prepared for Chalerm and/or his evil spawn to take center stage for the next round of "how low can we go" for political integrity. Oh my Buddha...... SS

I'm a "one", and I do not know that - or believe that. So - I guess that your premise may be flawed. Cheers! SS

For anyone who might be interested in the Bitcoin phenomenon, from the standpoint of how things work in Thailand, I have launched a website to serve as a central clearinghouse for relevant information. You can find a directory listing the (very few) business in Thailand that currently accept Bitcoin at: http://www.bitcoinrealmthai.com/ You can read an accurate summary of Thai government treatment of the first fully-legal Bitcoin exchange in Thailand at http://www.bitcoinrealmthai.com/thai-government-regulation-bitcoin-trading/ If anyone is interested in learning more, there is weekly meetup of Bitcoin enthusiasts, as posted at: http://www.meetup.com/Bangkok-Satoshi-Square/ Bitcoin has three main uses: 1. As a store of value - and it continues to take periodic beatings in this regard, due to whipsaw price volatility. 2. As a means of carrying out convenient retail or on-line financial transactions - with an app on your mobile phone, you can make a payment down to 25 satang very quickly and easily, at a merchant set up to acceopt payments; in the future, it will be easy to make (or receive) on-line micropayments - of, say, 20 or 30 baht - opening up new ways of delivering paid content at a very low threshhold of entry. 3. As a method of transferring funds internationally - quickly and inexpensively. In this role, Bitccoin van be thought of as a "magic envelope". You purchase as envelope to hold a specified amount of funds in whatever currency you are using to purchase the envelope at your end. The size of the envelope is determined by the amount of money it contains. You then send the "magic envelope" off to its destination - similary to sending a e-mail message or Tweet - but to a very strange looking alphanumeric address. The "magic envelope" reaches its destination within a few minutes - anywhere in the world that has internet. It can move 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. The "postage" for the trip is about 1 Satang - regardless of the size of the envelope. The recipent "opens the envelope" by "cashing it in" for an amount of money in local currency, roughly equivalent to what you orginally put into the envelope. The "magic envelope" is then ready for reuse by someone else. Right now, due to limited numbers of exchange points, the "exchange rates" between Bitcoin and local currencies can be somewhat unattractive - but that situation will improve, as more players begin enterring the market, increasing competitiveness. Resistance to Bitcoin in 2014 is almost perfectly mirroring resistance to e-mail in 1994. It is only a matter of time before digital currencies become ubiquitous. Cheers! SS

James R. Schlesinger, Willful Aide to Three Presidents, Is Dead at 85 James R. Schlesinger, a tough Cold War strategist who served as secretary of defense under Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford and became the nation’s first secretary of energy under President Jimmy Carter, died on Thursday in Baltimore. He was 85. A brilliant, often abrasive Harvard-educated economist, Mr. Schlesinger went to Washington in 1969 as an obscure White House budget official. Over the next decade he became chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, director of Central Intelligence, a cabinet officer for three presidents (two of whom fired him), a thorn to congressional leaders and a controversial national public figure. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/us/politics/james-r-schlesinger-cold-war-hard-liner-dies-at-85.html?_r=0 Quite a resume: Secretary of Defense, Director of the CIA, Chairman Atomic Energy Commission. I remember him for two things: 1. He was the Secretary of Defense when I memorized my first military Chain of Command in 1974 (way, way deep into the recitation) 2. He was the driving force and main proponent for developing both the A-10 Warthog Thunderbolt, and also the F-16. As a grunt, those were guardian angels to be cherished when available. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Schlesinger RIP. Cheers! SS

I will drink this evening to Fred Phelps dying in agony - a slow lingering death would be ideal.

Hal Douglas, "The Movie Trailer Guy", dead at age 89. I'll bet you can recognize his voice: (and this clip will probably put a smaile on your face) Cheers! SS

While doing some business research involving GMM Grammy Group, I stumbled across the story of this guy, of whom I had never before heard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewat_Buddhinan Then I found one of his songs on-line - evidently performed and filmed in 1986: http://youtu.be/XsPNP18Gu_Q Not half-bad at all. Flash - you must have heard of this guy - he must have effectively been the first real rock star of Thailand. He evidently died in 1996, at just 48 years of age. 'Founder of GMM Grammy in Thailand - which is now a quite substantial empire. Cheers! SS

I think that the relatively small number of frequent posters who still populate this board are mostly people who have lived in Thailand longer than ten years - and once you've been here that long, most of the "in your face" sex trade is no longer of much interest. Plus - the costs are WAY up, and the attitudes/attractiveness of the girls substantially down - to the point where it isn't worth the effort in most cases. I haven't barfined a girl in probably six or seven years - and probably never will again. But - I'm still glad that Cowboy and Nana exist - and i do occasionally stop in - mostly to reminisce about days gone by. In "the good old days" most go-go bars were stand-alone operations, who succeeded or failed based on their merits - and where managers and mamasans had almost total leeway to do whatever they thought was best. Think - a small, custom sandwich deli or pizza parlor that would make individual creations to the customer's order. But - nowadays - the go-gos are mostly "franchises" owned by a few big players - who standardize everything according to some plan - and it is boring and repetitive - as per McDonalds or Pizza Hut. What;'s to write about? "Yeah, I went into the McD's at Ploenchit Center. I had my 600th Big Mac. It was pretty much like the last 300 that I had - and indistinguishable from the one I had last week at Onnut McDonalds" Who's going to bother writing - or reading - that report? 'Sorry. Cheers! SS

OK, I feel a bit hesitant to cast dispersions upon a recently departed gent who can't defend himself - but ..... I'm not so sure that Nelson Mandela's saintliness was not substantially fabricated by a white western media that felt guilty. To whit: “I salute the South African Communist Party for its sterling contribution to the struggle for democracy.â€

A holiday tune - very well performed:

OK, this one is really "outside the box" - but, give it a chance - the guy actually has an amazing voice: